Fiji bewildered by Games ban

Fiji's National Olympic Committee said it could not understand the basis of a Court of Arbitration for Sport decision upholding its ban from October's Commonwealth Games in New Delhi.

Fiji appealed the ban to the CAS in Lausanne, Switzerland and urged its athletes to stay in training for the games, but the court Thursday rejected its appeal.

"We can't seem to understand how the decision could have gone against us because the Commonwealth Games Federation constitution says if your country is in the Commonwealth, then your athletes can take part," Fiji Amateur Sports and National Olympic Committee president Vidya Lakhan told Radio New Zealand.

"That was the basis of our appeal to CAS. We're very much interested in finding out the grounds on which our appeal has been dismissed."

Fiji was suspended from the Commonwealth last September when military ruler Commodore Frank Bainimarama, who seized power in a 2006 coup, refused to bow to demands to hold elections next year.-Taiwan News and Associated Press

Picture: Fiji's Mere Rabuka defends New Zealand's Irene van Dyke at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne in 2006.