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Iwan Tichon, here at the 2007 World Championships
Photo:
epa Kimimasa Mayama / picture-alliance / dpa
The world athletics association World Athletics has sharply criticized the election of the former hammer thrower and convicted doping sinner Iwan Tichon (44) as president of the national association in Belarus.
At the present time, "nobody who has received a doping penalty can hold an official position in the associations or structures of World Athletics," said a spokesman for the industry service insidethegames.biz.
Belarus is classified by the world association - alongside Ethiopia, Kenya and Ukraine - as a high-risk country for doping abuse.
Tichon, who became world champion in 2003, 2005 and 2007, is one of the most notorious doping offenders in athletics.
About half of his successes were stripped of him in loose succession because follow-up tests revealed that he had cheated with illicit means.
Among other things, he lost the World Cup title in 2005 and EM gold in 2006 for testosterone abuse, and Olympic silver in 2004 for steroid doping.
Even when he won the Olympic bronze in 2008, he was convicted of doping with testosterone, but the Cas International Sports Court conceded his disqualification due to a laboratory breakdown.
After positive tests became known, he was removed from the starting lists of the 2012 Olympics.
In 2016 he was allowed to start again in Rio de Janeiro - and again won Olympic silver.
According to insidethegames, despite his new role in the association, he is also planning to start at the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021, which has been postponed to the coming year.
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