Weightlifting coach gets life ban

Photo: Weightlifting coach gets life ban

Weightlifting coach Sevdalin Marinov was banned for life from involvement in competition after failing doping test for the second time, the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority said Monday.

Marinov was sanctioned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport for possession of prohibited substances including testosterone and anabolic steroids, uncovered during a police raid the coach's residence in 2003, ASADA said.

The former Olympic and world champion tested positive to steroids in Bulgaria in 1995 before moving to Australia, where he was most recently head coach in Victoria state and of the national junior program.

Under the world anti-doping code, a second offense brings an automatic life ban.

ASADA Chairman Richard Ings said Marinov was the third person to be sanctioned to date as a direct result of ASADA's new powers of investigation and the first non-analytical case to be successfully brought against a coach.

During the November 2003 search, "three boxes of prohibited substances; Deca-Durabol, Sustanon and Ilium Stanabolic were found in Mr. Marinov's bedroom," Ings said.

ASADA alleged at a recent CAS hearing that Marinov had committed a doping violation of trafficking by possession.

"This CAS decision sends a powerful message that there is no room in Australian sport for those athletes or their support persons who use or traffic in doping substances," he said.

Former world champion Sergo Chakhoyan was banned for life earlier in the year after a second positive test for a banned substance.

Armenian-born Chakhoyan, tested positive for the stimulant benzylpiperazine, or BZP, while competing at the 2005 Commonwealth, Oceania and South Pacific weightlifting championships for Australia.

He was previously banned for two years in 2001 after testing positive to the anabolic steroid stanozolol during the Goodwill Games in Brisbane.