Toghrul Asgarov Suspended One Year For Banned Substance

Toghrul Asgarov Suspended One Year For Banned Substance

Olympic gold medalist Toghrul Asgarov has been suspended for one year after testing positive for a banned substance

May 17, 2017 by Wrestling Nomad
Toghrul Asgarov Suspended One Year For Banned Substance
Toghrul Asgarov has been suspended for one year for an anti-doping rule violation, per United World Wrestling's list of penalized athletes. Asgarov was an Olympic gold medalist in 2012 at 60kg for Azerbaijan, and was the silver medalist last year in Rio at 65kg.

Last September, Asgarov was the center of a controversy involving Besik Kudukhov's silver medal from the London Games. News reports were published in India that Asgarov's gold medal would also be pulled, prompting UWW to send out the following tweet: [tweet url="https://twitter.com/wrestling/status/773138216950071296" hide_media="0" hide_thread="1"]
The substance named is Higenamine, also know as norcoclaurine, which is legal in the United States and European Union. It was just banned this year by the World Anti-Doping Agency, and is among a class of banned substances under the "Beta2-adrenergic agonist" umbrella (see Page 4 here), and is primarily used for weight management purposes. The substance can be found in both food supplements and traditional medicine.

The ban is for one year and occurred out of competition. No other information was released with regards to how the substance made its way into Asgarov or if he appealed the findings. As of now, his suspension ends April 17, 2018.

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