Double Olympian Roilya Ranaivosoa from Mauritius resigned after being charged with sample swapping and tampering ©Getty Images

For the second time in six months, a member of the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) Athletes' Commission has resigned after being suspended for a doping offence.

Double Olympian Roilya Ranaivosoa from Mauritius resigned after being charged with sample swapping and tampering by the International Testing Agency (ITA), which carries out all anti-doping procedures for the IWF.

Her alleged offence took place in 2016, about four months before Ranaivosoa finished ninth at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at 48 kilograms.

The 32-year-old multiple African champion was 11th at 49kg in the delayed Tokyo Games in 2021. 

Ranaivosoa has not competed since she won her second Commonwealth Games silver medal in Birmingham last July.

Last December, Zaccarias Bonnat, an Olympic silver medallist from Dominican Republic, resigned from the Athletes' Commission and the IWF Board after testing positive for the androgen receptor SARMS RAD140, a prohibited substance that is popular with bodybuilders.

Bonnat, who case is not yet closed, had been elected to the Board in September as one of three Athletes' Commission representatives.

Zaccarias Bonnat, an Olympic silver medallist from Dominican Republic, resigned from the Athletes' Commission and the IWF Board after testing positive for the androgen receptor SARMS RAD140 last December ©Getty Images
Zaccarias Bonnat, an Olympic silver medallist from Dominican Republic, resigned from the Athletes' Commission and the IWF Board after testing positive for the androgen receptor SARMS RAD140 last December ©Getty Images

The ITA has clearly targeted Mauritius, based on recent testing figures that show it tested six athletes in the final quarter of last year including Ranaivosoa and two male athletes who have served suspensions.

Another provisional suspension announced today by the ITA is Turkmenistan's youth world champion Medine Amanova, who tested positive for the steroid methasterone on April 11, two weeks after she won gold at 59kg in Durres, Albania.

Amanova, 17, whose younger sister Ogulshat took the 45kg youth world title in Durres, was second in the senior Asian Championships at 64kg in Jinju, South Korea, earlier this month.

Four weeks ago, Turkmenistan’s top male lifter Rejepbay Rejepov was provisionally suspended after a sample taken in February also came up positive for methasterone.

Rejepov, 31, was well placed in the Paris rankings after finishing second to China’s Li Dayin at 81kg in the IWF World Championships in December.

Any nation with three positives during the period between the end of the Tokyo Games and the start of the Paris Games will be barred from competing in France next year.