Brazilian Rebeca Gusmao has been cleared on first of three charges of doping, but the next two cases are expected to be more tricky for her.
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Unflattering post-race pictures of Hackett had people guessing about his form last Sunday, but already on Wednesday he turned up in fine form again at the pool in Melbourne. Turns out that his pot belly was only because of distance swimming in saline waters.
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Dutchman Maarten van der Weijden won the men’s 25km open water world title today with the time of 5 hours 4 minutes 1.1 seconds, just 5 tenths of a second ahead of USA’s Mark Warkentin. Great swimming by the 27 year old, who in March 2001 was diagnosed with acute lymphatic leukaemia, and given only a slight chance of survival.
Source: SwimNews
The International Olympic Committee has decided to ban any kind of political protest at the upcoming Olympic Games in Bejing, including waving the Tibet flag, paying tribute to the Dalai Lama, or any other kind of “look, external appearance, clothing, gestures, and written or oral statements.”
Source: The Associated Press
Olympic pool champion Grant Hackett was disqualified for ‘interfering with another swimmer’ at the 5th Open Water Swimming Championships 10 km race in Sevilla (Spain) yesterday, but only after having dropped of contention by the time the judging decision was made. Russia’s Vladimir Dyatchin won in the time of 1 hour 53 minutes 21 seconds, with Britain’s David Davies in second place and Germany’s Thomas Lurz in third. Source: fina.org
In a Swedish doping study, 55 men were willingly injected with testosterone, before undergoing the standard urine doping test. 17 of them tested negative, because they are missing a gene used to convert the testosterone into a form that dissolves in urine. This gene variation is especially common in Asian men.
Source: The New York Times
Madsen, who had a long history of coaching in Germany before accepting the DSV offer, is not yet convinced the Speedo suit makes a technical difference but there is no questioning the psychological impact.
“There have been 39 world records, long and short course, this year and 90 percent of them were in Speedo,” Madsen told Reuters during a poolside interview in Berlin, shortly before Australian swimmers set two more women’s records.
“That, or course, does something to the athletes. It’s almost impossible to put yourself in a state of mind where you say it doesn’t matter. Of course it matters.
Source: guardian.co.uk
Drug traffickers risk 5 years in jail and €75,000 fine (7 years and €150,000 if the offence is committed as part of an organised group or against a minor), while the maximum sentence is a year in prison and a €3,750 fine when the offence is committed by a sports person for his personal use. Source: AFP
Gary Hall Jr is pretty adamant about it: “There’s obviously something there besides technology”, “I don’t want it to take the attention away from the performances but there’s doping going on in sports” and “It’s a convenient distraction for the people who dope and those who aren’t cracking down on it”. Source: Reuters
Amaury Leveaux has broken the european men’s 50 free SCM record today with a time of 21.38, well below the 21.50 former record of Alain Bernard that was the world mark one month again, and just one tenth of a second from the 21.28 that is the current world record of Eamon Sullivan. Read here at SwimInfo.