Egyptian weightlifter Mohamed Sultan won three gold medals in the American Open Weightlifting Championship, recently held in the US with the participation of dozens of players representing more than 35 countries worldwide.
Sultan also won the title of best player in the championship after a distinguished performance during the competitions.
The weightlifter said that he had traveled to the US because of the injustice he faced from the weightlifting federation in Egypt – though he added that he dreams of returning to represent Egypt in international forums.
Sultan said he turned down offers to represent other countries in international tournaments, saying he would only represent Egypt.
He is married to fellow weightlifter Abeer Abdel Rahman, who won the silver medal at the 2012 London Olympics.
The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) decided earlier this month to withdraw the world weightlifting championship organization from Egypt in March 2020, following the the Court of Arbitration for Sport’s (CAS) ruling to ban Egypt from participating in weightlifting competitions for two years.
The CAS on December 4 turned down the Egyptian Weightlifting Federation’s appeal against the ban, according to the Ahram online gate.
The IWF replaced Egypt with Romania to organize the competition.
The court also banned the Egyptian Weightlifting national team from participating at the 2020 Olympics Competition in Tokyo.
Any nation with three or more positives for doping in a calendar year will be banned from the competitions, in this case for two years, said the IWF’s website.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
