Last month, United World Wrestling (UWW) stripped Rio 2016 berths from athletes that tested positive for the heart-attack drug, most notably European champion Magomedmurad Gadzhiev of Poland.

According to UWW’s anti-doping rules and the latest instruction issued by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the competitive results of the athletes sanctioned for doping violations should be wiped.

Due to doping violations at the European Olympic Games Qualifying Tournament in Serbian city Zrenjanin in April, Gadzhiev and Ukraine’s Andriy Kvyatkovskyy had their results in the men’s freestyle 65 kilograms division voided and associated Olympic licences revoked.

They were just two of several wrestlers to suffer the fate in the men’s freestyle, women’s freestyle and Greco-Roman categories. 

In March, five-time Grand Slam tennis champion Maria Sharapova of Russia revealed she had been provisionally banned after testing positive for meldonium at the Australian Open in January.

A spate of cases involving the drug, only added to the banned list by WADA from January 1, have since emerged.

UWW confirmed the decision to drop the wrestlers in question from its rankings in announcing its revised freestyle standings for May.

European champion Anzor Boltukaev has claimed top spot at 97kg after beating five-time world champion Khadshimurad Gatsalov at last week’s Russian Championships in Yakutsk.

Boltukaev, who came to the Championships ranked number four, struck with a quick double-leg takedown 40 seconds into the final.

Then, as top-ranked Gatsalov looked to get away, Boltukaev locked in a cross-ankle grip to wrap up a technical fall in only 62 seconds.

Bulgaria’s Boris Novachkov, bronze medallist at the 2014 European Championships, made the biggest jump in the freestyle rankings.

He went from unranked to number 11 at 65kg with victory at the second and final Olympic Games World Qualifying Tournament held last month in Istanbul.

Also joining the rankings are Romania’s Albert Saritov and Ukraine’s Aleksander Khotsianivski, both of whom qualified for Rio 2016 with wins in the Turkish city at 97kg and 125kg respectively.

Saritov climbs to number 13, while Khotsianivski comes in at number 14.

Armenian Georgi Ketoev, Saritov’s fellow Russian world team member, is another new addition after qualifying his country for Rio 2016 by winning at 97kg at the first Olympic Games World Qualifying Tournament in Mongolia’s capital Ulaanbaatar in April.

Ketoev, one of Russia’s six freestyle world champions in 2007, earned a bronze medal at Beijing 2008.

Saritov took the bronze medal at the 2011 World Championships in Istanbul, but was subsequently replaced by Anzor Urishev in Russia’s team for London 2012.