Hafiz Suleymanov

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.

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.

A Soviet weightlifter who won the featherweight division in the world championships in Athens went to the Turkish Embassy there and asked for asylum, the Foreign Ministry said today. The 125-pound weightlifter, Hafiz Suleymanov, performed last week, but ministry spokesman Ferhat Ataman would not say when the defection took place. Government officials said a charter plane will be sent to Athens to bring Suleymanov, who is an ethnic Turk, to Turkey.