Although the rumored drug-testing results from the 2006 European Weightlifting Championships were not yet official, the IWF Secretariat told IronMind® that there had been positives on A samples, but because the precisely-controlled drug testing process had not yet been completed, it was premature to announce the names of the athletes or countries involved. Then, Bulgarian Weightlifting Federation president Andon Nikolov was quoted describing a positive result involving his country and also Russia.

An official announcement by the IWF is expected imminently, most likely at the EWF Executive Board meeting on Thursday, but the same names keep surfacing and are now being discussed openly by high-level European Weightlifting Federation officials and at yesterday's EWF Congress, a statement was made about the additional positives.

What IronMind® has been told is that "The reason why so many lifters have tested positive is because of the new testing technology that can find anabolics used up to ten weeks ago. The testing also take longer time than before; that's why this is announced now."

If the string of alleged positives holds up, some will be quick to bludgeon weightlifting with the results, but others with a bit more perspective will understand that if, in fact, a new test has been developed that goes back ten weeks, weightlifting will have once again shown its seriousness in terms of conducting a clean sport, and then the positives can be taken as proof that the testing program is working.