Russian world champion Alexey Lovchev is currently serving a four-year doping suspension ©Getty Images

Russian weigthtlifer Alexey Lovchev, currently serving a four-year doping suspension, has said he would insist in a judicial process that the permitted substance ecdisten had been found in his body.

Lovchev failed for growth hormone enhancer ipamorelin following his over 105 kilograms victory at last year’s World Championships in Houston.

His A sample taken during the event showed traces of the banned substance and his B sample opened in Montreal also tested positive.

Ecdisten is a natural preparation extracted from the maral root and is used as a restorative agent.

"When we filed a complaint, we requested that an additional analysis of the B sample should be held before hearings, but we were denied this request again," Lovchev told Russian news agency TASS.

"At the same time, two European scientists held an independent experiment with their Russian colleague, which proved that we were right while the Montreal lab had made a mistake.

"Several persons under test took the permitted preparation and then samples were taken from them, which showed the same content as my samples had.

"This is the substance ecdisten, which is permitted and is used by most athletes."

Russia's Alexey Lovchev tested positive for growth hormone enhancer ipamorelin following his over 105 kilograms victory at last year’s World Championships in Houston ©Getty Images
Russia's Alexey Lovchev tested positive for growth hormone enhancer ipamorelin following his over 105 kilograms victory at last year’s World Championships in Houston ©Getty Images

Lovchev said he did not agree with the four-year ban given to him by the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) after a hearing in Budapest in April.

He vowed to appeal the verdict at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne with the first hearing of the case scheduled for July 6.

Earlier this month, Azerbaijan's Ministry of Youth and Sport blamed the careless consumption of food and drinks for the disqualification of its athletes in some cases,

It came after Azerbaijani weightlifters Elkhan Aligulizada, Sylvia Angelova, Firidun Guliyev, Valentin Hristov and Intigam Zairov were banned for eight years and Dadash Dadashbayli for four years after positive doping tests following the 2015 World Championships.

The Russian Weightlifting Federation (RWF), along with the Belarusian and Kazakhstani equivalents, will be suspended for one year in the event that it is proven the countries produced three or more anti-doping rule violations in the combined re-analysis of samples from 2008 and 2012 Olympics in Beijing and London respectively.

It means all three countries are in danger of missing this year's Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro with final decisions on the possible bans due to be made after the International Olympic Committee makes a definitive ruling on the retests. 

Even if Russia are allowed to compete at Rio 2016, the IWF has confirmed during its Executive Board meeting here that they will lose two quota places owing to multiple positive cases in the qualification period.