YEREVAN. – Armenia’s London 2012 silver medal-winning Greco-Roman wrestler Arsen Julfalakyan (74 kg) clarifies with the physicians ten times before using any drug, sports doctor Areg Hovhannisyan said during a press conference on Saturday. 

“Sanctions are applied in the Armenian scene for using stimulants. True, there weren’t many such cases. There were cases when the athlete had used stimulants without knowing. But the athlete is always the guilty one,” noted Hovhannisyan.    

“When they find a stimulant in one athlete, they test all athletes in the team. But no violations were recorded in the Armenian team. We tested our weightlifters three times, ourselves, and the tests came out clean in all the cases,” he said.    

In his turn, Director Nairi Manukyan of the Republican Center for Sports Medicine and Anti-Doping Service noted that even those suffering from chronic injuries do not resort to stimulants.   

“I am very well familiar with the condition of [Armenia’s London 2012 bronze medal-winning female weightlifter] Hripsime Khurshudyan, [weightlifter] Tigran Martirosyan, and others. The news that Martirosyan did not compete in the [London] Olympics because of stimulants is untrue,” said Manukyan.