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Last-minute Games admission for Iraq
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has allowed Iraq to send a four-strong team to next month's Beijing Games in a last-minute deal to end a dispute with the country's government.
- Reuters
- Published: 00:43 July 30, 2008
- The decision to allow Iraq to compete follows last-minute talks Tuesday between Iraqi officials and the IOC in Lausanne, Switzerland.
- Image Credit: AP
Athens: The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has allowed Iraq to send a four-strong team to next month's Beijing Games in a last-minute deal to end a dispute with the country's government.
Iraq was banned from the Games last week after the government disbanded the country's National Olympic Committee (NOC), a move that angered the IOC.
Government officials met with IOC officials in Lausanne on Tuesday to iron out differences in time to send two track and field athletes to the Games opening nest week.
Registration deadlines for all other sports had passed but a pair of rowers were allowed to go anyway.
"I commend the government of Iraq for reaching an agreement that serves the long-term interest of Iraqi athletes," said IOC President Jacques Rogge.
"We have said all along that we want to see Iraqi athletes in Beijing. We look forward to seeing the Iraqi flag in Beijing."
New elections
The IOC said Iraq could send a team but the NOC had to hold new elections.
Rogge added: "The agreement also calls for the transparent and fair election of a new, independent Iraqi National Olympic Committee, no later than the end of November 2008."
The Iraqi NOC was disbanded in May by the government because of a dispute over how it had been assembled.
The IOC gave Iraq a deadline to reinstate the committee but the government refused.
The ban stunned Iraqi athletes who felt they had been treated unfairly after their legitimate qualifications for the Games.
The most recent Olympic suspension involved Afghanistan, which was banned in 1999 and missed the Sydney 2000 Olympics.
Deadlines
Iraq initially planned to send a small team despite violence that has killed more than 100 athletes in the country since the 2003 US-led invasion.
At least seven Iraqis - two rowers, a weightlifter, a sprinter, a discus thrower, a judoka and an archer - had qualified for places at Beijing.
But due to deadlines for entrants only the sprinter and discuss thrower could go.
However, the International Rowing Federation said the Iraq men's rowing double, Haidar Nozad and Hamzah Hussain Jebur, would be allowed to take part.
The rowing federation's executive director, Matt Smith said: "We called the IOC and asked if we could have the rowers back and the answer just came through. We're very happy."
But the others are still set to miss out.
Archer Ali Adnan said: "I heard the news and my participation in Beijing is now impossible.
"I don't want to blame anyone. This is my fate and I'm resigned to it."
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