Olympic judo officials said on Monday they needed more evidence before any action could be taken against Iran for an apparent political boycott of a bout with an Israeli.
Having failed to reach a conclusion immediately after Sunday's withdrawal in Athens, the International Judo Federation's (IJF) executive committee was to meet again on Monday on the case of Iranian world champion Arash Miresmaeili.
He was to have fought Israel's Ehud Vaks in the first round of the Under-66 kg class on Sunday but was overweight at the weigh-in. Miresmaeili was quoted as saying he had avoided fighting out of sympathy with the Palestinian people.
A spokeswoman for Iran's Olympic Committee said he had been told to pull out in line with national policy towards Israel.
However, Olympic officials said the reasons were unclear.
"Before speaking of sanctions we have to know exactly why he failed his weight," IJF spokesman Michel Brousse told reporters.
"We have to know whether it was done on purpose or accidentally. At the moment we don't know.
Comments
Comments are closed.