Brazil’s Fernando Reis to miss Tokyo Olympics after positive drug test

The Brazilian Olympic Committee (COB) provisionally suspended weightlifter Fernando Reis on Friday for failing an out-of-competition dope test conducted on June 11, ruling him out of the Tokyo Olympics starting next week.

The COB said in a statement that Brazil’s anti-doping agency found the 31-year-old Reis’ sample had contained the presence of a growth hormone.

ALSO READ| South Korea removes banners at Olympic village after IOC ruling

“Thus, the athlete is excluded from the delegation that will compete in the Tokyo Olympic Games,” the COB said.

“The Olympic Committee in Brazil reinforces its commitment to clean sport, maintaining several educational initiatives to combat doping.

“All athletes from the Brazilian delegation in Tokyo necessarily took the course on combating doping offered by the World Anti-Doping Agency.”

Reis, a bronze medallist at the 2018 world weightlifting championships in Ashgabat in the 109 kg category after Uzbek Rustam Djangabaev’s disqualification, was due to compete in his third Games.

The Brazilian weightlifting confederation said that three-times Pan American Games champion Reis was scheduled to travel to Tokyo next week.

He will now get the chance to have his B-sample analysed, the confederation added.

Reis finished 11th in London 2012 and fifth in Rio 2016 in the 105 kg category.

The Tokyo Games, delayed last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, will begin on July 23.