IWF President Tamás Aján believes his sport has done enough to combat doping in the past year to retain its place in the Olympic Games ©Getty Images

Tamás Aján, President of the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF), says he is confident the sport has done enough to combat doping to vouchsafe its threatened place at the Olympic Games.

Nine countries banned by the IWF for having multiple positives in the retesting of doping samples from the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games - namely Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Moldova and Turkey - have now served a year's suspension and returned to competition as the World Championships loom in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan.

Last December the International Olympic Committee (IOC) outlined four requirements the beleagurered IWF need to meet to stay on the programme post-Tokyo 2020.

These are the full implementation of the recommendations from the Independent Clean Sport Commission and the Sport Programme Commission, the completion of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) code compliance monitoring programme and the submission of a questionnaire report on corrective actions.

"We have fulfilled all four of these criteria set by the IOC," Aján told insidethegames.

"The IOC at their Executive Board meeting in July recognised the concrete steps we had taken to strengthen the IWF anti-doping programme and change cultural attitudes towards doping in high-risk countries.

"They also praised our Tokyo 2020 qualification system which they recommended other International Federations follow.

"However, they want to monitor the full implementation of these changes to verify their positive impact.

Sohrab Moradi of Iran en-route to gold in the men's 94 kilograms weightlifting at the Rio 2016 Olympics - the IWF believes it has done enough to combat doping to retain its Olympic status ©Getty Images
Sohrab Moradi of Iran en-route to gold in the men's 94 kilograms weightlifting at the Rio 2016 Olympics - the IWF believes it has done enough to combat doping to retain its Olympic status ©Getty Images

"We respect the IOC's decision and our commitment to ensuring clean sport remains as strong as ever.

"We will continue to work closely with the IOC and WADA to ensure a level playing field for our athletes.

"While we will not take anything for granted we are confident that weightlifting will remain part of the Olympic programme at Paris 2024 once the IOC has seen the positive outcome of the measures we have introduced."

Asked how big a risk he considered the awarding of the 2020 European Championships to Russia on the day its suspension ended, and whether he felt this indicated that Russia had completely sorted out its longstanding doping problems under its new organisers, Aján said: "To be clear the host of the European Championships is selected by the European Weightlifting Federation, not the IWF, so I would recommend you ask them.

"The Russian Weightlifting Federation has made good progress in ensuring clean sport and has served its suspension.

"The Russian Anti-Doping Agency has of course also been reinstated. 

"But we will continue to monitor the situation closely, as we will do all nations."

Read the full Big Read interview with Aján here.