North Korean Olympic weightlifting champ Kim among seven banned

FILE – Un Guk Kim of North Korea competes in the men’s 62kg weight class during the 2015 International Weightlifting Federation World Championships at the George R. Brown Convention Center on November 22, 2015 in Houston, Texas. Scott Halleran/Getty Images/AFP

Olympic champion Kim Un Guk of North Korea was among seven athletes provisionally suspended by the International Weightlifting Federation after failing doping tests at the world championships in the United States.

Kim, who set a world record total in the men’s 62-kilogram division to win London 2012 Olympic gold, finished second to China’s Chen Lijun’s world-record 333kg total at the worlds in Houston, Texas. Kim won the snatch and was second in clean and jerk.

Kim tested positive for the banned substance letrozole, classified as a hormone and metabolic modulator.

Azerbaijan’s Valentin Hristov and Elkhan Aligulizada tested positive for the banned anabolic substance nandrolone.

Aligulizada was second in the clean and jerk at 77kg while Hristov was third in all three categories at 62kg. They were two of three men from their homeland to finish on the podium at the event.

Their female compatriot Silviya Angelova also tested positive for banned substances including nandrolone, with Moldova’s Ghenadie Dudoglo, Turkmenistan’s Umurbek Bazarbayev and Saudi Arabia’s Mansour Abdulrahim M Al Saleem the others to fail tests.