Azerbaijani athlete to be awarded a gold medal from London Olympics
By Rashid Shirinov
Azerbaijani weightlifter Intigam Zairov will be awarded a silver medal from the 2012 London Games after several athletes were disqualified over doping charges.
The national athlete, who with a score of 397kg took the 6th place in the 94kg weight category, later was caught on doping, but then was acquitted by the International Weightlifting Federation.
However, other six athletes in his weight category were punished, while the justification of Zairov enabled him to rise to a higher place and win Olympic silver.
Iranian athlete Saeid Mohammadpour Karkaragh, who was the 5th in London, was declared the Olympic champion. The bronze award went to Korean Kim Min-Jae, who initially was the 8th.
The disqualified athletes are Ilya Ilyin (Kazakhstan), Alexander Ivanov (Russia), Anatolie Ciricu (Moldova), Andrey Demanov (Russia) and Almas Uteshov (Kazakhstan).
Thus, the number of medals won by Azerbaijani athletes in the London Games reached 11. The national team won two gold, three silver and six bronze medals. Seven of them were won in wrestling, two in boxing and two other in weightlifting.
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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov
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