INQUIRER Sports

BEIJING -- India's Olympic officials said on Monday that doping charges against female weightlifter Monika Devi had been dropped, but it was too late to get her back into the Beijing Olympics.

"The entry process for the Games has been closed, it is too late for Monika to come to Beijing now," Indian Olympic Association secretary-general Randhir Singh told Agence France-Presse.

Devi was withdrawn from the Games last Tuesday, hours before she was due to board a flight for the Chinese capital after the state-run Sports Authority of India said she had tested positive for an unnamed steroid.

But the Indian Weightlifting Federation backed Devi and cleared her of the charge when the local government in Devi's home state of Manipur said she had been victimized and demanded a full-scale federal probe.

Devi, due to compete in the 69-kilogram category on August 13, had also claimed her innocence, saying: "Shoot me if I fail a dope test in Beijing."

Singh said his attempts to get Devi back into the Games were in vain as the International Weightlifting Federation refused to give her a last-minute entry.

A statement from the world body president Tamas Ajan said: "It is not possible to insert, change or otherwise modify any athlete’s participation after the entry date ended on August 7."

The incident is the latest scandal to hit Indian weightlifting following positive dope tests and bribery allegations in the past.

Devi was herself given the lone Indian weightlifting berth at Beijing amid controversy after the original choice, Shailaja Pujari, was dropped following a cash-for-selection scandal.

Pujari was named in media reports as offering 500,000 rupees ($12,500) to a senior official to get picked for the Games, a charge she vehemently denied.

Devi replaced Pujari after fresh selection trials were ordered by the sports ministry.

Indian weightlifters have just emerged from a year-long ban after a series of drug-related scandals between 2002 and 2006, which forced them to miss the Asian Games in Doha two years ago.