The Indian Weightlifting Federation (IWF) was scheduled to announce the name of the lifter who would fill the only berth India have got for the Beijing Olympics on Sunday, but a dispute over the selection procedure at the event in Pune saw officials put off picking the candidate till July 15.

On Sunday, three competitors — Chaya Devi, Monica Devi and P Shailaja Pujari — participated in the selection trials for the Beijing slot.

A poor performance by Chaya Devi saw her bow out of the race, and the fight for the solitary berth is now between Monica (69kg) and Shailaja (75kg), who have been called for a re-trial. IWF vice-president CBR Prasad alleged that “Sunday’s trials were totally ‘unfair’,” saying the officials had favoured Pujari despite the fact that she violated the rules.

“She had taped her knee with a bandage whose width was more than that allowed. It’s illegal as it helps participants during the lift.

“This was completely overlooked,” Prasad said from Hyderabad.

“For that matter, the IWF shouldn’t even have allowed Shailaja to participate as she has twice failed dope tests at the international level.”

But IWF secretary BR Gulati denied that a re-trial was scheduled to help Pujari make the grade, saying that it was an in-house decision to have another assessment of the lifters. “We need to assess the performance of the lifters bound for Beijing properly before sending any entry, that’s all,” he first said.

But when asked what was the need to assess the performances again, that too within such a short time-span, he refused to comment.

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