Beijing beckons five Iraqis

Baghdad: Iraqi officials said on Wednesday that the International Olympic Committee will allow up to five Iraqi athletes to take the field in Beijing after a ban on the country was lifted at the eleventh hour.

"The IOC has allowed another three Iraqi athletes to participate in the Beijing Games after permitting two other athletes to take part," Hussein al-Amidi, security general of the Iraqi Olympic Committee said.

Track and field athletes Haidar Nasir, a discus thrower, and sprinter Dana Hussein, will be joined by rowers Haidar Nozad and Hamza Hussein and archer Ali Adnan, Amidi said.

"We are very happy because it reflects the strength of support from the IOC towards Iraqi athletics," he added.

Adnan’s participation will however depend on another archer from any other country dropping out of the Games, Didier Mieville, media director for the International Archery Federation based in Lausanne told AFP.

"If there is a cancellation of any other archer then he is first on the waiting list," Mieville said.

The decision to allow more athletes came a day after Iraqi and IOC officials hammered out a last minute deal to allow further participation by Iraq in this year’s Games.

In addition, five government representatives will be invited by the IOC as observers to the Olympics, which begin on August 8.

Following Tuesday’s decision in Lausanne, it initially looked as if five athletes of the original seven member squad would to be be left out after registration deadlines for those sports expired on July 23.

— AFP