Russia defend last-minute withdrawals

Russian weightlifting coach Davyd Rigert defended the last-minute Olympic withdrawals of two of his gold medal favourites Monday and insisted there was nothing sinister in the development. Just before the weigh-in for the 105kg contest took place, Russia withdrew 2011 world champion Khadzhimurat Akkaev and 2005 world champion Dmitriy Klokov. As a result, Ukraine's Oleksiy Torokhtiy ended up the shock winner with the lowest Olympic and world championship weight since the inception of the under-105kg division in 1999. It was even six kilos fewer than Ilya Ilyin of Kazakhstan lifted in winning the under-94kg category on Sunday. "Incidents and accidents happen in sport. Looking at the expressions on your faces I see many of you doubt what I'm saying is true," Rigert told journalists. "I'm aware of rumours and speculation but if Khadzhimurat wants to prove it, here he is," he added before Akkaev revealed a bandage on his lower back, just to the right of his spine. Akkaev said he was forced out of the competition due to a herniated disc, which was operated on in London on August 2 while Rigert said Klokov had undergone an operation in Russia on his injured knee. "A month ago I felt back pains and these pains increased progressively. When I came here there was real pain and I couldn't feel my legs," added Akkaev. "They took an X-ray of my back and found out I had a herniated disc and it was fairly big so they decided I needed emergency surgery. That's what happened, they took me to hospital and operated on me." He said he spent two days in hospital and only managed to start walking again on Sunday, the day before his competition. Turning his attentions to Klokov, Rigert admitted he was in no shape even to come to London. "When the doctors looked into the injury he couldn't just fly in and had to stay and undergo surgery," said Rigert. "For me being the head Russian coach it was a tragedy." It's not just Russia that have pulled out athletes from the Games weighlifting competition. Ukraine have withdrawn three over the last two days -- women's over-75kg Svitlana Cherniavska, men's under-94kg competitor Artem Ivanov and men's over-105kg Artem Udachyn.