Plan for Fiji to be allowed to compete in Delhi set for defeat

By Duncan Mackay

November 27 - An attempt to get a ban on Fiji's athletes competing at the Commonwealth Games next year overturned at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, is set to be defeated.

The proposal from Malaysia is that Fiji should not be excluded from the Games in New Delhi just because they are currently suspended from the Commonwealth following its failure to schedule elections.

But New Zealand Prime Minister John Key has warned that Malaysia's bid was unlikely to get much support.

He said: "New Zealand's opposed to Fiji being allowed re-entry into the Commonwealth Games.

"It's inconsistent with the previous stance that the Commonwealth has taken and it would send completely the wrong message to the administration."

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown may also lead a discussion about the possibility of Zimbabwe being readmitted to the Commonwealth, which make their athletes, including the double Olympic gold medallist Kirsty Coventry, eligible to compete in the Games for the first time since Manchester in 2002.

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