The ITA asserts apparent anti-doping rule violation against Azerbaijani weightlifter

Acting independently on behalf of the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF), the ITA reports that a sample collected by the ITA during an In-Competition testing mission on 5 April 2021 during the 2021 European Championships in Moscow, Russia from gold medal winner (59 kgs) Ms. Boyanka Minkova Kostova, a weightlifter from Azerbaijan, has returned an Adverse Analytical Finding (AAF) for the prohibited steroid stanozolol metabolite.

The athlete has been notified of the case and has been provisionally suspended until the resolution of the matter. She has the right to request the analysis of the B-sample.

If confirmed, this will potentially be the athlete’s second Anti-Doping Rule Violation (the athlete was previously sanctioned with a period of ineligibility from 10 June 2016 until 10 June 2018 for the presence of the prohibited steroid Dehydrochloromethyl- testosterone).

Pursuant to the IWF’s delegation of its anti-doping program to the ITA, the prosecution of the case is being handled entirely by the ITA. Given that the case is underway, there will be no further comments during the ongoing proceeding.