‘Welcome back’: Lawyers claim victory in case over medal-winning Russian weightlifter Bochkov’s doping sample from six years ago

2018 world bronze medalist Bochkov was suspended from sport after a sample from 2015 was found to have contained traces of a prohibited anabolic agent, putting his impressive career on hold last year.

In a spiritedly self-congratulatory message, the group of lawyers he turned to said they had studied the conclusions drawn by the testing laborator and the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) and taken part in “a long correspondence with RUSADA on the issue of collected and new evidence.”

“Our specialists did a great job,” said a statement from Klever Consult about the challenge they faced.

“The case was further complicated by the fact that about five years had passed since the delivery of the controversial sample, which in itself tied both parties’ hands in terms of collecting the evidence base,” they said.

“The result of our many months of work was a victory in the Disciplinary Anti-Doping Committee RUSADA, whose members we apparently managed to convince that the laboratory’s report of a positive sample was not entirely correct,

“We wish Rodion great victories on the platforms. Welcome back to sports.”

The 27-year-old came second at the European Championships in Georgia in 2019 and fourth in the world championships in the same year, beating all of his rivals with one of his clean and jerk attempts.

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