Sporting digest: Olympic Games

NATIONAL Olympic committees have accepted the idea of pre-Games qualifying, limiting future Games participation to the best athletes but International Olympic Committee Sports Director, Gilbert Felli, said yesterday that in two sports - athletics and swimming - every country would be able to send at least one man and one woman. 'They should be either the national champion or have some good background in the sport,' he said.

THE former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia won provisional recognition yesterday, bringing the number of countries in the movement to 186.