Russia withdraws appeal against weightlifting ban - report

ZURICH (Reuters) - Russia's weightlifting federation (RWF) has withdrawn its appeal against a one-year ban from the sport, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) said on Friday. Russia was banned last July for breaching an International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) ruling that any country with three or more positive tests in re-analysis of samples from the 2008 and 2012 Olympics would be banned. The RWF had taken its case against the IWL to CAS, which said that the hearing scheduled for Thursday was cancelled after the case was withdrawn. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is keeping samples from past games for up to a decade to conduct re-tests with newer methods. Re-tests of samples from the Beijing and London Games have so far caught more than 100 doping offenders, affecting weightlifting, athletics, cycling, swimming and wrestling. The specialist website Inside The Games said the withdrawal of the appeal followed a meeting between Russian weightlifting chief Maxim Agapitov and IWF head Tamas Ajan. CAS said it was hearing appeals from Belarus and Kazakhstan against similar bans from the sport on Friday. (Writing by Brian Homewood; Editing by Angus MacSwan)