Weightlifter Monica Devi has been dropped from the Indian team for the Beijing Olympics after reportedly failing a drugs test, officials say.

They saying that she tested positive for performance-enhancing substances.

The decision to withdraw Ms Devi came hours before she was owed to fly to Beijing. She will not be replaced.

A tearful Ms Devi, the sole Indian weightlifter owing to participate in Beijing, has denied the allegations and insisted she is innocent.

“I’ve not ever, to the end of time tested positive,” she told reporters in Delhi. “I don’t be sure what politics has happened.

“Tomorrow, I am supposed to be assayed in Beijing. If that turns positive, everyone can shoot me.”

Urine test

Ms Devi was reported to have failed a Sports Authority of India (SAI) urine test forward 29 July, that revealed the presence of a performance-enhancing anabolic salt.

Indian Weightlifting Federation (IWF) President Harbhajan Singh defended Ms Devi, pointing out that she had been pure almost 30 times in the out of the reach of 18 months, all of which had been negative.

“They took four animal-water samples from her in the last pair months and we got a report today saying she tested positive,” he told the Reuters news agency.

“It does not even say which sample tested positive and for what substance. The report itself is flimsy.”

He said there would be no replacement because stand-by weightlifter Shailaja Pujari had also been suspended for doping in the past and could prove an embarrassment.

The Indian Weightlifting Federation was banned from international competitions for a year in March 2006 following a series of drug-related scandals involving its weightlifters.

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