World's strongest man Russia's Lovchev banned for doping use: media

Russia's weightlifter Alexei Lovchev, named "the world's strongest man" after lifting a record 264kg in November 2015, has been banned for four years for doping rule violation, Russian media reported Tuesday.

"Yesterday, I received documents from the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) on my disqualification," the TASS news agency quoted Lovchev as saying.

Sergei Syrtsov, President of the Russian Weightlifting Federation, confirmed Lovchev's disqualification to another Russian news agency, the RIA Novosti.

He said his federation and the athlete himself intended to challenge the disqualification in the Court of Arbitration of Sport based in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Lovchev also set a world clean and jerk record of 475kg in November last year at the IWF World Weightlifting Championship in Houston, the United States.

Yet in December, the IWF provisionally suspended Lovchev for allegedly testing positive to ipamorelin, a peptide that increases growth hormone levels.

A separate TASS report said Tuesday that the IWF had disqualified three more Russian weightlifters, Alexei Kosov, Olga Afanasyeva and Olga Zubova for doping use, adding that the athletes would not challenge the ruling.

The Russian Anti-Doping Agency's own records published on its website showed over 30 athletes and coaches had been disqualified for abuse of doping since the start of the year. Endit