|
Beijing: Beijing organisers expressed sympathy for Iraqi athletes on Friday after the suspension of Iraq’s National Olympic Committee (NOC) ruled them out of the Olympics.
The Iraqi government disbanded the NOC in May over a dispute on its assembly, and failed meet a deadline by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to reinstate it.
"We have noticed the relative regulations concerning the Iraq issue," said Sun Weide, spokesman for the Beijing Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (Bocog).
"It is a decision made by the IOC according to relative regulations…Bocog feels sorry for the Iraqi athletes being unable to participate in the Beijing Games," Weide said.
At least seven Iraqi athletes, two rowers, a weightlifter, a sprinter, a discus thrower, a judoka and an archer, had earned places in Beijing.
|
