The Pacific tiny island nation of Nauru will send only one athlete, weighlifter Itte Detenamo, to contest at the Beijing Olympics next month, the Suva-based Pacnews agency reported on Tuesday.

This decision was made by the Nauru Olympic Committee, following a final trial test held at the Oceania Weightlifting Institute in Noumea, New Caledonia, between Nauru's Yukio Peter 77kg category and Itte Detenamo 105+kg category.

Both athletes are IOC Scholarship holders and train at the OWF Institute in Noumea.

Itte Detenamo's total was 387 kg with a snatch of 175 kg and a clean & jerk of 212 kg.

Yukio Peter's total was 330kg with a snatch of 140 kg and a clean & jerk of 190 kg.

Itte is the 2007 South Pacific Games triple gold medalist and competed at the 2004 Olympic Games placing 14th in the 105+kg category. He also won a bronze medal at the 2006 Commonwealth Games.

Nauru unfortunately qualified only one lifter at the Oceania Olympic qualification event held in New Zealand in March this year, even though they had three lifters in 2004 at the Athens Olympics (two males and one female).

Yukio Peter, who placed 8th in Athens in the 69kg category and won a silver medal in the clean and jerk at the 2005 World Championships, has had in the last couple of years a series of disappointments which have culminated in missing out on this year's Olympic Games.

But the Nauru Olympic Committee will still take Yukio to the Olympics as an official to assist his teammate Itte.

(Xinhua News Agency July 22, 2008)