A number of Pacific weightlifters have improved their final placings at the London Olympics after 12 athletes were disqualified from their 2012 events following re-testing of samples by the International Olympic Committee.
Seven of the top eleven lifters in the men's 94kg weightlifting event category have now been disqualified.
Kiribati's David Katoatau during the 2016 Oceania Championships. Photo: Facebook / 2016 Oceania Weightlifting Championship
David Katoatau from Kiribati is now the tenth place finisher, having initially finished 17th.
Iran's Saeid Mohammadpour will be elevated to a gold medal-winning position, having originally finished in fifth place.
Papua New Guinea's Dika Toua will now finish 12th in the women's 53kg event after Moldova's Cristina Iovu was been stripped of the bronze medal.
PNG weightlifter Dika Toua. Photo: EMTV
Samoa's Ele Opeloge, who is set to be awarded a silver medal following retests from the 2008 Beijing Olympics, has also been elevated to a fifth place finish in the over 75kg division in London, after the bronze medallist, Hripsime Khurshudyan from Armenia, was also disqualified.
Luisa Peters from the Cook Islands will climb one place to 11th.
Meanwhile PNG's Steven Kari will rise to a 13th place finish in the men's 85kg division after Georgia's Rauli Tsirekidze, who originally finished ninth, was disqualified for an anti-doping violation.
Cook Islands's Luisa Peters in action at the Rio Olympics. Photo: AFP
