Eleven weightlifting medallists at Beijing 2008 have failed doping tests following reanalysis of samples provided from the Games.

A range of banned substances were found across a group of 15 athletes who competed in China, the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) revealed.

Among those who returned adverse findings are Chinese gold medal-winning trio, Cao Lei, Chen Xiexia and Liu Chunhong.

Andrei Rybakou, who holds the snatch and total world records in the men's 85 kilogram category and took silver in Beijing, tested positive, while fellow Belarusian Nastassia Novikava also failed the reanalysis.

Kazakhstan duo Maria Grabovetskaya and Irina Nekrassova, Russian pair Khadzhimurat Akkaev and Dmitry Lapikov and Ukraine's Nataliya Davydova and Olha Korobka are the other medallists to have tested positive.

Four other weightlifters who were not on the podium at Beijing 2008 also failed retests, but two of them – Iryna Kulesha and Maya Maneza – won medals at London 2012.

All 15 weightlifters have been provisionally suspended by the IWF and could be stripped of honours received in Beijing if found to have committed anti-doping violations.

Retests in June and July flagged positive results for 10 weightlifters who competed at the 2008 Games, including five medallists.

At Rio 2016, Kyrgyzstan's Izzat Artykov was stripped of his bronze in the men's 69kg event having failed a doping test.