World champion Soviet weightlifter Hafiz Suleymanov and his Soviet trainer sought asylum at the Turkish embassy in Athens Tuesday, a Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman said.
Suleymanov, 22, won the featherweight world title Saturday at the World Weightlifting Championships in Athens.
The Turkish spokesman said the weightlifter and his trainer, Vitali Strobov, had gone to the embassy early Tuesday.
In Athens, Soviet team leader Nikolai Parkhamenko said: "Suleymanov has been missing from his hotel room since 10 a.m. We have been looking for him since, but we don't know where he went."
