Nijat Rahimov produced one of the biggest shocks in weightlifting this century when he broke a world record by four kilograms to claim gold at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games - but he lost his gold medal when five years’ worth of results were annulled last year because of his cheating.

Lu Xiaojun of China was promoted from second to first place by the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) last year but has not had his gold medal from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) because of Rahimov’s appeal.

On the IOC website only second and third-placed athletes are listed in the 77kg contest, the 2012 and 2020 champion Lu and Mohamed Ehab from Egypt, with the gold medal place blank.

The IOC said it cannot consider the reallocation of medals until "the athletes/teams sanctioned have exhausted all their remedies of appeal, when all procedures are closed, and the International Federation has established the new ranking officially".

News of Rahimov’s case at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) emerged after the fourth-placed finisher in Rio, Chatuphum Chinnawong from Thailand, contacted insidethegames to see if any explanation could be found for the delay in reallocating medals.

The award of a bronze medal would be a life-changing event for Chinnawong, who would be in line for a Government job and enough money to build his own home.

The precise wording of Rahimov’s appeal is not known, for example whether he is contesting the sample-swapping verdict, the entire five-year results disqualification, the Olympic gold medal forfeit, or some other element of the case.

The Kazakhstan Weightlifting Federation (WFRK) did not respond to a request for further details from insidethegames.

CAS did not elaborate but did say that the IWF had also filed a complaint against Rahimov.

The IWF declined to comment.

A CAS spokesperson said: "The Panel in charge of the matters is deliberating and preparing the arbitral award containing its decision.

"It is not possible to indicate at this time when the final award will be issued."

Rahimov was first alerted of the sample-swapping charge more than two years ago, in January 2021 and his eight-year suspension, along with disqualification from all his competitions since March 2016, was announced by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) last March.

He was found to have been using "clean" samples from other athletes as his own "over a period of time in 2016", in preparation for the Olympic Games.

That decision was welcomed by the International Testing Agency (ITA), which carries out all anti-doping procedures for the IWF and which brought the anti-doping rule violation charge against Rahimov on behalf of the governing body.

Rahimov was caught when the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) developed a new method for detecting sample tampering and found evidence of urine substitution by 18 weightlifters from six countries during an investigation in 2020.

He was banned for eight years because the sample-swapping offence was his second doping violation, the first having led to a two-year ban in 2013 when Rahimov was lifting for his native Azerbaijan.

Chinnawong, who missed the podium by one kilogram when he finished fourth in Rio, has made a plea to the sporting authorities to complete his upgrade to third place.

He will be able to build a home, claim a Government job and secure his own and his family’s future if and when he receives the medal.

Chinnawong said he would be entitled to prize money from the Government and sponsors when he gets his medal, and that he planned to use it "to make my dream come true" - to move out of his rented accommodation and "build my home and stay with my beloved family."

He currently works as an assistant for his National Federation, the Thailand Amateur Weightlifting Association (TAWA) and is training to be a coach.