The national sports body is defending its decision to bar two top triathletes from representing the Cook Islands at the Pacific Games.

CISNOC has copped flak from the Cook Islands Triathlon Association after deciding two athletes do not meet the eligibility criteria for the games.

The national body says Team Cook Islands, who will represent the country at the Pacific Games in New Caledonia in October, must be made up of athletes that comply with the eligibility criteria under the Pacific Games charter.

Top female triathletes Vanessa Palmer and Kelly Pick cannot compete as neither has lived in the Cook Islands for more than five years.

Athletes representing the Cook Islands must have lived here for a minimum of five years and hold a New Zealand passport.

Both Pick and Palmer hold New Zealand passports but neither have lived in the Cooks for five years one of the athletes is five months away from reaching the five-year mark and the other has another year to go before meeting this criteria.

CISNOC secretary general Rosie Blake says that the triathlon association and its athletes have alleged that CISNOC received the information on the athletes status from Kevin Henderson a local triathlete that has his own bone to pick with the triathlon association.

However both Blake and CISNOC administration officer Siniva Marsters deny the claims.

It was discovered that these two athletes did not meet the athlete eligibility criteria after a routine check by the high performance commission. This is a normal procedure we do for every team we send away, says Marsters.

We asked for evidence of residency from the athletes and although they provided us with visitors visas and other papers it wasnt enough.

As the national sports body we are just doing our job and following due process based on the specifications of the Pacific Games charter, says Blake.

We cannot bend the rules for anyone. We want to avoid sanctions on CISNOC and the sports codes it represents.

Blake and Marsters say that this point has been explained to the two triathletes and the triathlon association, but say CISNOC continues to receive what they call nasty letters and phone calls from the association and its athletes.

One of the things they said to us is why is CISNOC doing this? and does CISNOC not want the medals? says Marsters.

We know these two are wonderful athletes and were huge medal contenders at the games, says Blake.

We are devastated to lose such quality athletes because they are certainly medal prospects but they dont meet the eligibility criteria.

All 13 sports codes representing the Cook Islands at the games were charged with honestly entering the names of their athletes into the online registration website where it would be available to the rest of the 22 nations taking part in the Pacific Games to dispute.

If athletes who did not meet the eligibility criteria were unopposed during this process, there was still a chance that any medals they won could be stripped for cheating.

Its this cheating badge that CISNOC does not want pinned on the Cook Islands and her athletes.

The triathletes are not the only athletes feeling the ineligibility pressure, with Matthew Titoa, who is arguably the islands top boxer, not able to box for the country at the Pacific Games.

Although he has lived on Rarotonga for well over five years, Titoa carries a Samoan passport.

The boxing association is doing its best to try to get Titoa a New Zealand passport as has been done for Team Cook Islands athletes in the past.