(Original post from Oct 20, 2017, see updates below)
Meanwhile in Bucharest …
The IWF announced that today that the executive board unanimously decided that countries with produced three or more doping violations from the 2008 and 2012 retests (see timeline here) will be suspended for one year.
Countries Affected: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, China, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine.
The EB is now drafting the reasoned decisions which are scheduled to be sent to the MFs and to take effect in mid-October.
This means that athletes from these countries would not be eligible to start at world championships 2017.
On the other hand it also implies that the mentioned countries would be allowed to lift in Lima 2018 which is a qualifying event for the 2020 Olympic Games. So none of the countries would lose points.
Update: What does this mean for Europeans 2018 Turkey? No turks competing in on home turf?
Update: Europeans 2018 will likely be moved to a different location.
Update 20.10.2017: IWF finalized the decisions. via
In case an MF decides to unconditionally accept the set of criteria it automatically involves the acceptance of being monitored by an Independent Monitoring Group which will mainly consist of outside-the-sport anti-doping experts.
The Group will carefully assess the situation of each MF which undertakes to comply with the criteria and create an action plan to address these issues one by one.
The monitoring will continue throughout the entire suspension period.
If fully satisfied, the Group at its sole discretion may decide to grant a Partial Conditional Reinstatement of the MF’s right to participate at IWF Events. The earliest time of such reinstatement depends on the gravity of the MF’s violation of the Policy rendered by the Board on 22 June (i.e.: number and severity of re-analysis cases). The reinstatement will not affect any other rights of the MF suspended as per the Board’s decision – these will remain suspended even in case a conditional lift is granted.
The last part is interesting. It could open the doors for countries with less positives, like China to compete at Asian Games 2018.
Update 13.06.2018: IWF ends country bans for Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan early.
IWF Hands Out 1 Year Bans for Countries with 3+ Positives from Retests (China, Russia, KAZ, AZE …) is a post by Gregor Winter from All Things Gym.