TEHRAN – Iranian superheavyweight Saeid Alihosseini has announced his retirement from the sport after losing hope of competing in the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.

The 2017 Weightlifting World Championships silver medalist was left off Iran’s weightlifting team for an Olympic qualifying event in Switzerland took place at the end of October.

The +109kg lifter returned to the field after eight years suspension in August 2017.

Alihosseini failed two doping tests, in March 2008 and October 2009. After originally being banned for life his penalty was changed to a 12-year suspension.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport decreased his lifetime ban for a second doping offense to eight years.

CAS had originally barred Alihosseini from competition until October 2021, when he will be 33, after he tested positive for the anabolic steroid methandienone.

The court eased a lifetime ban imposed by the International Weightlifting Federation because of the circumstances of Alihosseini's first offense. CAS accepted that a subsequently banned coach doped unwitting Iranian lifters with clenbuterol.

Alihossein claimed two medals in his return, winning a silver at the 2017 World Championships in Anaheim and taking again a silver at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta in +105kg.