Coffa, the long-timer former Commonwealth Games Australia president, told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age he was one of the more than 50 witnesses interviewed by McLaren, who said only four of 20 member federations contacted had replied to his investigators and “only one of those provided information of significant value”.

The 122-page report details a vote-rorting scheme at the IWF election in Bangkok in 2017, when Coffa lost his place on the executive after supporting the opposition ticket. Ajan, now 81, retained the presidency with the support of certain African and Asian federations who were originally standing against him. The bribes ranged from $US5000 to $US30,000.

While Coffa flew direct to Thailand for the vote, the bribed delegates travelled via Qatar and stayed at five-star hotels, all expenses paid, and lavished with luxury cruises.

“They were then transported by Thailand ... all free of charge, they were put in a separate hotel then the one where we were all staying,” Coffa said on Friday.

“Then on the morning of the election they presented themselves at the congress, they were instructed to vote according to a ticket. They were then requested to photograph that ballot, present the ballot to a person and that person would give them $5000. We would say in our country, ‘That’s bribery, that’s corruption’.”

Coffa was from 2000 to 2008 effectively second in command to Ajan as IWF first vice-president and said he had for years tried to drive change and heard rumours of the skulduggery in the sport.

“This is what people like me have been suspecting for a long time,” he said.

“In my time there, the board and the sport was dominated by eastern Europeans. It was difficult – I was the only dissenting voice, it didn’t matter what I said or thought or did. They just had a set of values and that’s what they did. But you need votes. If you don’t have votes you don’t have anything.

“Tamas Ajan was a master of divide and conquer. He knew where the votes were and he made sure he had the support at all times.

“It didn’t matter whether you were an executive board member or first vice-president, he just wouldn’t listen to you.”

As for doping, its entrenchment in weightlifting is not exactly breaking news – as McLaren’s report notes, more than 600 lifters have tested positive over the past decade. Thailand and Malaysia were banned from having weightlifters at the Tokyo Olympics altogether because so many of their athletes had failed drugs tests.

The revelations in the report about a history of drug tests being covered up, however, is another blow for clean athletes.

“You always had those assumptions and you talked amongst other people involved in the sport who had those assumptions,” said former Queensland super heavyweight Damon Kelly, who finished ninth at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 and won gold at the Delhi Commonwealth Games in 2010.

“It’s sad to see that it’s confirmed. But it’s not that surprising.”

Coffa, meanwhile, sat up late on Thursday night in his Melbourne home to watch McLaren deliver his findings in a video press conference.

A doorkeeper the 1956 Melbourne Olympics who himself lifted at the Tokyo Games in 1964 before spending decades in administration, his final assignment after more than 60 years may be to try and save the sport he loves.

“I’m an old man and I don’t have any aspirations but I just want to help the sport get up off its knees and come up as a powerful sport clean and well led,” he said.

“I hope I can make a contribution to the restoration of the sport worldwide. I’ll work as hard as I can until I die because it’s my passion.”