Press releases

MINSK, 29 July (BelTA) – The Belarusian wrestling team have booked one more berth for the 2016 Rio Games. This was announced after a special commission of the United World Wrestling (UWW) banned Russian athlete Viktor Lebedev from the forthcoming Olympic Games, BelTA has learned.

The Olympic quota place in the 57kg category went to the Belarusian team. “The wrestler to represent Belarus in Rio de Janeiro will be named at a later stage. The two major candidates are Asadulla Lachinov and Vladislav Andreyev,” said Director of the Internet portal of martial arts octagon.by Roman Markovsky.

On 28 July the UWW special commission studied the report of an independent commission of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and decided to allow 16 Russian fighters to the 2016 Olympics. Viktor Lebedev was barred from the Games after testing positive at the 2006 world junior championships.

Thus, three wrestlers will represent Belarus at the 31st Summer Olympic Games. Earlier, Rio berths have been secured by Omargadzhi Magomedov (86kg) and Ibragim Saidov (125kg). Wrestling medal events in Rio de Janeiro will take place at the Arena Carioca 2 from 19 to 21 August.