MOSCOW, March 19. /TASS/. Four Russian female weightlifters, including multiple-time world champion Tatiana Kashirina, have qualified for the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Japan, Gennady Anikanov, the head coach of the Russian women’s national weightlifting team, told TASS on Thursday.
In view of the recent changes to the calendar of tournaments introduced over the novel coronavirus pandemic, the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) agreed with the recommendations of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) against the extension of the Olympic weightlifting qualifications timetable and proposed a new system of qualifiers for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
The IWF is expecting at the moment a decision from the IOC on the proposed changes and will notify the national federations and athletes on the new qualifications system as soon as the world’s governing Olympic body makes this decision.
"Besides Tatiana Kashirina we have three more female athletes, who have already received licenses based on their results from the previous qualification tournaments," Anikanov said in an interview with TASS.
"These athletes are Kristina Sobol, Kristina Novitskaya and Yevgeniya Paskhina," he continued. "We have already submitted an [Olympic] application containing these names."
The 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo are scheduled to be held between July 24 and August 9.
In line with a decision of the International Weightlifting Federation as of April 2018, that was passed following a chain of doping scandals in Russian sports, the national weightlifting team of Russia has the right to register only two weightlifters for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo — one in the male and one in female competitions.
"The female contender for the Games in Tokyo will be selected shortly before the start of the tournament, because nobody is immune from possible injuries or other health problems," Anikanov said. "However, we keep hoping that we will be granted an additional application before the start of the Olympics."
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