LONDON: The troubled International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) has appointed its third interim president in as many days, with Britain's Michael Irani taking over from Thailand's Intarat Yodbangtoey.
Maj Gen Intarat, former president of the Thai Amateur Weightlifting Association (Tawa), had replaced American Ursula Papandrea in the role after an executive board vote at an emergency meeting on Tuesday.
The Budapest-based IWF, whose future as an Olympic sport is at risk, said Irani, chair of the federation's medical committee and a former chair of its anti-doping commission, was appointed interim president on Thursday.
Irani is the fourth IWF chief in less than nine months.
"I do not intend to stand as a candidate for the IWF president position in the future, so I will be able to focus fully on the reforms leading up to a clear and transparent IWF congress," Irani, 71, said in a statement.
Intarat, whose country is banned from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics because of its athletes' doping cases, voluntarily stepped aside, www.insidethegames.biz reported.
His move came after fierce criticism from within the sport and from the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
Irani agreed to replace him after other candidates declined, the website said.
The IOC said on Wednesday it was "very worried" about the boardroom putsch, saying they had "enjoyed excellent cooperation" with Papandrea.
USA Weightlifting and the British Weight Lifting (BWL) issued strong statements after Intarat's appointment, accusing the IWF board of blocking reform.
The Americans called for an extraordinary congress to be convened by the end of next month while the BWL said the executive board should stand down immediately.
The website insidethegames.biz reported that Antonio Urso, president of the European Weightlifting Federation (EWF), had resigned from the board in protest after Irani's appointment.
"I no longer share the political line of this board, which seems to me crazy and destructive of the future of world weightlifting," the website quoted him as saying.
The sport, rocked by revelations of doping cover-ups and decades of corruption, has been warned by the IOC that it risks being cut from the 2024 Paris Olympics.
The IWF board elected Papandrea in January after 81-year-old president Tamas Ajan, a Hungarian, stepped aside during a corruption probe.
Ajan, who eventually resigned in April, had been at the IWF since 1976, serving 24 years as general secretary and 20 as president.
Graft, doping cover-ups
Richard McLaren, the Canadian law professor whose findings in July 2016 led to Russia being banned from all international athletic competitions, including the Rio Olympics, told reporters in June that the IWF was rife with corruption.
This included vote buying, doping cover-ups and US$10.4 million in cash that cannot be accounted for. Ajan denied any wrongdoing.
In January, a documentary by German TV channel ARD revealed what it described as a "culture of corruption" in the sport intended to mask the use of doping.
According to the documentary, until 2017 high-level weightlifters were being exempted from many doping controls, and test results were being altered in exchange for bribes.
ARD also referred to documents showing that nearly €4.5 million paid to the IWF by the IOC were transferred to accounts in Switzerland over which Ajan alone exercised control.
In the ARD documentary, Thailand's 2012 Olympic bronze medallist Rattikan (now Siripuch) Gulnoi admitted to using steroids when she was a teenager.
Although Tawa claimed she was filmed by a hidden camera, its entire board, led by its president Boossaba Yodbangtoey, resigned.
Prachya Keeratinan was elected as Tawa president to succeed Boossaba in March.
Weightlifting is Thailand's most successful sport at the Olympics with five gold medals.