Russian competitors have been excluded from next month's European Weightlifting Championships, which leaves them facing problems for qualifying for next year's Olympic Games in Paris ©Getty Images

Weightlifters from Russia and Belarus will not be able to join the Olympic qualifying pathway to Paris 2024 at their own Continental Championships in Armenia next month.

Their hopes are now pinned on being accepted into the Asian Championships in South Korea in May or the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) Grand Prix in Cuba in June.

If athletes from Russia and Belarus do not take part in at least one of those events they will be unable - unless some other plan is put forward - to participate in the minimum number of five qualifying events.

More than a year after Russia invaded Ukraine, Governments throughout Western Europe have warned they strongly oppose the Olympic participation of athletes from Russia and its ally Belarus.

Russian athletes are welcome in Asia and Latin America, however.

The Olympic Council of Asia has announced it would allow athletes from Russia and Belarus to take part in its qualifying competitions in all sports where it is feasible.

A team of four from Russia competed in a women-only event in Iran last week and eight athletes, four men and four women, are due lift in Venezuela from April 21 until 29 at the Games of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of the Americas, according to Russia’s official state news agency TASS.

Neither of those is an official IWF competition.

A group of Russian competitors took part last week in a women-only weightlifting competition in Iran, but it is not recognised by the IWF ©FATR
A group of Russian competitors took part last week in a women-only weightlifting competition in Iran, but it is not recognised by the IWF ©FATR

The IWF is awaiting a recommendation from the International Olympic Committee (IOC), whose Executive Board is due to meet in Lausanne from March 28 until 30.

After hearing from the IOC, the IWF Board will gather on March 30 in Tirana in Albania, during the World Youth Championships to discuss its next steps.

Until it receives any further advice the IWF will stand by its statement issued in January, which said: "The IWF stands in solidarity with Ukraine and reaffirms its support for the IOC’s sanctions against the Russian and Belarusian state and Government.

"The IWF believes strongly in the unifying mission of sport and the Olympic Movement and welcomes the exploration of a pathway for Russian and Belarussian athletes to compete under strict conditions.

"The IWF will uphold the current protective measures in place while this pathway is considered."

The European Championships are schedule to take place in Yerevan, the Armenian capital, from April 15 until 23.

Russia and Belarus had collectively entered 65 lifters, including reserves, at the preliminary stage but none made it on to the final list of 346 names released today by the European Weightlifting Federation (EWF).

The entries include all the European medallists from the re-arranged 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo who are still active and eligible to lift: Lasha Talakhadze from Georgia, Mirko Zanni and Antonino Pizzolato from Italy, Simon Martirosyan from Armenia, Arturs Plesnieks from Latvia and Emily Campbell from Britain.

Pizzolato, who missed the first Paris 2024 qualifying event – the 2022 IWF World Championships in Bogotá in Colombia - because of injury goes head to head with Bulgaria’s Karlos Nasar at 89 kilograms.

Both men hold world records at that weight, Pizzolato on total and Nasar, who is still a teenager, in clean and jerk.

Three current world champions are among the entries, Talakhadze in the men’s super-heavyweights, Norway’s Solfrid Koanda at 87kg and the Romanian snatch world record holder Loreda Toma at 71kg.

Italian Olympic bronze medallist Antonino Pizzolato will make his return from injury at the European Weightlifting Championships in Yerevan ©Getty Images
Italian Olympic bronze medallist Antonino Pizzolato will make his return from injury at the European Weightlifting Championships in Yerevan ©Getty Images

Host nation Armenia has named a formidable maximum team of 20, plus four reserves.

In the super-heavyweights Martirosyan, having moved up, and his team-mate Varazdat Lalayan have both posted entry totals of 450kg behind Talakhadze’s 465kg.

Lifters from the host nation have the two highest entry totals at both 96kg and 102kg.

Other nations sending large teams include Poland, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Spain and the Czech Republic.

In the Pan American Championships, due to start next weekend in Bariloche in Argentina, the biggest teams come from the host nation, Colombia, the United States, Canada, Mexico, Ecuador and Venezuela.

Olympic champions Maude Charron from Canada in the 64kg category and Neisi Dajomes from Ecuador in the 76kg, are set to compete at 59kg and 81kg, respectively.

Among Charron’s rivals is the Colombian 59kg world champion Yenny Alvarez.

A host of other medallists from Tokyo 2020 and Bogotá will compete, including Luis Javier Mosquera from Colombia, who returns at 73kg after a lengthy injury lay-off.