Jacques Rogge, the President of the IOC, had announced in March that the Executive Board would choose two of the seven sports bidding to be included in 2016 at its meeting in Berlin on August 13.

 

But there had been speculation that they may choose three, or even possibly four, to put before the IOC at its Session in Copenhagen on October 9 so that the members had a choice.

 

Those hopes now appear to have been dashed.

 

Christophe Dubi, the IOC's Sports Director, said: "This is something he [Rogge] said publicly during SportAccord in Denver so it was very clear and again today with all the [seven] federations he said at the end [of their presentations] that it would be a choice of two."

 

Baseball, golf, karate, roller sports, rugby sevens, softball and squash all gave 20 minute presentations to the 15-member Executive Board setting out as to why they should be included in the 2016 Games.

 

Rogge said: "All seven sports made interesting and informative presentations.

 

"All have something to offer.

 

"In the end, the decision will come down to which are the best fit for the Olympic programme."

 

The Olympic Programme Commission, composed of IOC members, representatives of international federations and National Olympic Committees as well as experts, are overseeing the evaluation process.

 

The Commission is due to deliver a report assessing the candidate sports to the Executive Board on the eve of its vote in August.

 

Dubi said: "They were asked what value added do you think you will bring to the Games and the Olympic Movement and in return what will the Games bring to your sport.

 

"They have all done this exercise with different arguments."

 

All the sports emerged from their presentations professing confidence about how well they had done.

 

But the feeling remains that golf and rugby sevens remain the strong front runners.

 

Sweden's Annika Sorenstam, widely regarded as the best female player of all time, was part of a high-level delegation representing golf which also included Britain's Colin Montgomerie, Europe's Ryder Cup captain.

 

She said: "I think we shot under par."

 

 

The International Rugby Board's group [pictured] included players from four continents as well as female players and officials to emphasise its universality.

 

Agustin Pichot, Argentina's captain, said: "The Olympics will lift the whole concept for the players.

 

"Players will want to compete for Olympic gold.

 

"They will want to be chosen."
 

There remains widespread sympathy, though, for softball, controversially voted off the programme for London 2012 by one vote at the IOC Session in Singapore four years ago.

 

It has since undertaken a major programme to revamp itself and make it more attractive to the IOC.

 

They have also formally split from baseball, also voted off at Singapore, which has a major drugs problem and has struggled to get its leading players to participate in the Olympics.

 

Don Porter, the President of the International Softball Federation, said: "We want to get back to having an Olympic dream.

 

"We hope we did enough to get a favourable decision."
 

Squash, another sport considered to be a strong contender for Olympic inclusion, stressed its universality and youth appeal.
 

They underlined that point by including in their delegation Hanna Fakeda [pictured with the rest of the squash team], a 13-year-old from Ethiopia who is now living in the United States.

 

She told the Executive Board how squash had helped enrich her life by improving her grades at school and how she hoped to play in the 2016 Olympics.

 

Fedeka said: “I was really nervous but enjoyed doing the presentation today.  

 

"It has been amazing to travel to Switzerland and meet my hero, Nicol [David – world number one squash player]. 

 

"I feel like squash has given me so many opportunities that I wouldn’t have had otherwise that when I was asked to take part in this presentation I jumped at the chance.  

 

"I would be so happy to compete at the Olympic Games.”