Thai weightlifting chief denies offering bribes at world congress

Intarat Yodbangteoy, who is also first vice-president of the IWF, dismissed the findings of the McLaren Independent Investigation into Weightlifting, which claimed he had bribed delegates to vote for disgraced former IWF president Tamas Ajan. The findings were published earlier this week by the UK-based sports website Insidethegames.biz.
"It was obvious that there were not any [rival] candidates, so it was unnecessary to bribe anyone for this position as alleged," said Intarat during a press conference at the Sports Authority of Thailand on Wednesday (June 10).
"Furthermore, the Central Election Commission of Switzerland supervised the IWF Electoral Congress. If it had any suspicions or doubts, it would be reported them to the Congress immediately," he added.
“This allegation is an insult to individuality and humanity,” said Intarat, who also threatened to sue his accusers.
The entire executive board of the Thai Amateur Weightlifting Association, which had been run for years by the IWF's Intarat, resigned in the wake of doping allegations earlier this year.
Thai weightlifters are banned from the postponed Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games because of multiple doping offences.