/cloudfront-us-east-2.images.arcpublishing.com/reuters/IL22O54FUJIULF6GGZTDU2IGEE.jpg)
XVIII Pan American Games – Lima 2019 – Weightlifting – Men + 109kg Group A – Coliseo Mariscal Caceres, Lima, Peru – July 30, 2019. Brazilian Fernando Saraiva Reis in action. REUTERS / Guadalupe Pardo
July 17 (Reuters) – The Brazilian Olympic Committee (COB) provisionally suspended weightlifter Fernando Reis on Friday for failing an out-of-competition doping test on June 11, excluding him from the Tokyo Olympics starting this week next.
The COB said in a statement that Brazil’s anti-doping agency discovered that Reis, 31, contained the presence of growth hormone.
“Thus, the athlete is excluded from the delegation that will participate in the Tokyo Olympics,” said the COB.
“The Brazilian Olympic Committee is strengthening its commitment to clean sport, maintaining several educational initiatives to fight doping.
“All the athletes of the Brazilian delegation in Tokyo must have taken the anti-doping course offered by the World Anti-Doping Agency.”
Reis, bronze medalist at the 2018 World Weightlifting Championships in Ashgabat in the +109 kg category after the disqualification of Uzbek Rustam Djangabaev, was due to participate in his third Games.
The Brazilian Weightlifting Confederation has said three-time Pan American Games champion Reis is due to travel to Tokyo next week.
He will now have the chance to have his B sample analyzed, added the confederation.
Reis finished 11th at London 2012 and fifth at Rio 2016 in the +105 kg category.
The Tokyo Games, delayed last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, will begin on July 23.
Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Kim Coghill
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.