The Russian team appear to be set to lose two Rio 2016 Olympic quota places after eight weightlifters from the country reportedly failed drug tests during the two year qualification period.

European Youth under 85 kilograms champion in 2015, Ilya Atnabayev, and 2014 under 94kg winner Denis Kekhter, are each serving four-year bans, as are over 105kg heavyweight Artem Grigoryan and two-time European 105kg silver medallist Maksim Sheiko.

Over 105kg world champion Alexey Lovchev was reportedly handed a four-year ban last month after testing positive for growth hormone enhancer ipamorelin at the 2015 World Championships in Houston, but he is thought to be appealing the decision at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Three other Russians - women's clean and jerk gold and overall under 75kg bronze medallist Olga Zubova, under 94kg snatch champion Aleksei Kosov and women’s under 69kg lifter Olga Afanaseva - were among 24 athletes to fail tests during the event.

Zubova reportedly received an eight-year suspension, with Kosov and Afanaseva believed to have received four-year bans.

All cases are expected to be concluded by the International Weightlifting Federation’s (IWF) Executive Board meeting scheduled for Tbilisi in Georgia next Wednesday and Thursday ( June 22 and 23), with Russia expected to lose two of their 10 quota spots if the cases are confirmed.

Despite the cases involving his athletes, Syrtsov was chosen to lead the EWF’s Anti-Doping Commission, where he will be supported by Spain’s Emilio Estarlik, Estonia’s Jaan Taalts and Moldova’s Antonio Conflitti.

The EWF vice-president’s appointment was decided at the organisation’s first Executive Board meeting since their Congress in April, with IWF President Tamás Aján among those in attendance.

Alexander Kurlovich, winner of the over 110kg gold medal for the Soviet Union at the Seoul 1988 Olympic Games who then retained the title at Barcelona 1992 when representing the Unified Team, has been appointed as the chairman of the Athletes’ Commission.

London 2012 men’s 105kg gold medallist Oleksiy Torokhtiy of Ukraine, Poland’s Monika Olszewskav and Finland’s Carolina Lundhal have all been appointed as members of the Commission.

Denmark’s Tina Beiter was named as chair of the Technical Committee, which also includes Malta’s Jesmond Caruana, Armenia’s Pashik Alavardian, Poland’s Boguslaw Mokranowski and Giorgeta Ion of Romania.

Colin Buckley of Ireland will chair the Coaching Research and Scientific Committee with support from Belgium’s Tom Goegebuer, Latvia’s Eduards Andruskevics, Slovenia’s Damyan Canzek and Serbia’s Milan Mihajlovic.

The Medical Committee will consist of Poland’s Daniel Kopko, Spain’s Lleonart Rubio Dolores, Hungary’s Laszlo Krivanek, Serbia’s Dado Medic, Georgia’s Zurab Kakhabrishvili and Italy’s Nicola Voglino, with Tryggve Duun of Norway serving as its chairman.

Damianos Hadjidamianou of Cyprus was appointed as the chairman of the Marketing and Communication Commission, which will also see Slovakia’s Pavol Mutafov and Britain’s Ashley Metcalfe serve as members.

Metcalfe is a former Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire county cricketer, whose father-in-law Ray Illingworth was a former England captain.

Israel’s Oren Shai was appointed as the legal affairs officer at the meeting, which saw Tirana announced as the hosts of the 2017 EWF Junior and Under 23 European Championships.

Antalya was awarded hosting rights to the 2018 Senior Under-23 European Championships.