Sports court backs Russians in ‘triumph of law over politics’

Russian Maxim Agapitov has been approved for the post of President of the International Weightlifting Federation (IMF) after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) upheld his appeal against a ban. The decision also freed fellow Russians Dmitry Chernogorov and Aleksandr Kishkin to run for positions in the IMF.

The IWF’s Eligibility Determination Panel (EDP) had previously stated that the trio was ineligible to be nominated by the Russian Weightlifting Federation (RWF). However, in a Thursday ruling, CAS said the panel had not done so “the jurisdiction” to stop them from standing.

“The relevant CAS panel determined that the IMF’s EDP had no authority to prevent the RWF from nominating candidates for the elections.” read a CAS declaration.

“Indeed, such a decision is disciplinary in nature and, under Article 13 of the IMF Constitution, it was not for the IMF-EDP to decide on the suspension of the RWF in the light of Article 13.12 of the IMF Constitution, but only for eligibility of candidates in accordance with the IMF Constitution.”

Agapito will run for IMF President, Secretary-General and Treasurer, Vice President, and for a position on the Executive Board.

Kishkin was nominated by the RWF for a seat on the IWF Technical Committee, while Chernogorov is seeking a place on the Coaching and Research Committee.

The IWF had attempted to prevent the RWF from nominating officials by citing previous anti-doping violations and also disallowing officials from Thailand and Egypt.

After Agapitov was accepted as a candidate, the inclusion of Agapitov would mean that there are 11 contenders for the post of IMF President.

Lawyer Mikhail Prokopets, who defended the interests of Agapitov and other Russian representatives, said TASS that Thursday’s decision was the only right result.

“We are glad that the court considered all our arguments,” he said.

“To be honest, we were afraid that the difficult political situation might have influenced the CAS ruling.

“Decisions in favor of the Russians are now becoming very difficult, even if there are serious reasons.

“But we must give credit to the Arbitration Court of Sport in Lausanne, which proved the triumph of law, not politics, in this case.”

Speaking about his chances in the elections, Agapitov suggested that it was “Too early to tell.”

“It is clear that our election campaign has been undermined,” he said on Match TV.

“I think my opponents had such a program so that we wouldn’t appear as candidates at all in the IMF elections.”

Corresponding Inside the games the upcoming vote is “one of the most important in the history of weightlifting” after the sport was not included in the preliminary program for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics due to governance concerns.