Russia: five more titles
The Russians fully dominated the penultimate day of the swimming competitions, winning 5 out of 7 finals. They brought their gold medal tally to 15, capturing almost half of the titles on offer (31) so far. Still, the day’s most outstanding performance belonged to a Brit: Luke Greenbank.
The payout to Andrew Bree forms part of a settlement reached in his compensation claim at the High Court in Belfast.
The 200m breaststroke swimmer, from County Down, represented Ireland at the 2000 and 2008 Olympics.
He was in a road accident on Belfast’s Ravenhill Road in October 2010.
Three months after sustaining head, back and leg injuries, he returned to training in the United States, but failed in his efforts to make the qualifying time for a third Olympic Games.
Funding
Mr Bree sued the other motorist’s insurers for the cuts to his funding grants when he failed to qualify.
With liability not contested, the court action was centred on the level of any pay-out to be awarded.
The court heard that in the year up to the accident the swimmer received more than £15,000 from Sport NI.
He had also been allocated 12,000 euros (£8,600) from the Irish Sports Council for each of the three preceding years.
In his evidence, the swimmer said that before the collision he had been confident of making the qualifying time for the London Olympics.
After the accident he said he felt “isolated” and his confidence was “jolted”.
“I spent more energy, more thoughts concentrating on trying to get back to that instead of focusing on the Olympics and my goal for that,” he said.
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A successful Budapest World Aquatic Championships in 2017 could help Hungary in its bid to host the 2024 Olympics, Budapest Mayor István Tarlós told public television M1. Tarlós said the expected success of the championships would “obviously†be considered when the decision is made on the venue for the 2024 Olympics just a few weeks later.
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Michael Phelps is one the greatest Olympic athletes in history, but we’ll never know how close he came to being an NFL star because his mom wouldn’t let him.
According to Deborah Phelps, her son envied his buddies and was dying to play football when he was growing up. But mother knows best, or more accurately, mom was playing the odds. Deborah continued to steer her son to the pool, and the rest is Olympic medal history.
“When he told me he wanted to play football, I didn’t say, ‘No, you have to swim,†his mother Debbie Phelps said. “I told him, ‘Only a small percentage of varsity football players get a scholarship to a D-I school and an even smaller percentage make the NFL.’ Then I told him, ‘Think about what you have already accomplished in your sport and where you could possibly go.’ I thought the best way of teaching would be to explain his options and help him make the right choice.â€
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Austria’s golden 15 minutes
Austrian swimmers produced big news on the third day of the swimming competitions at the European Games in Baku by clinching two titles in a span of 15 minutes. Italy also enjoyed a fine afternoon with a gold and three silvers, while the Russians were as outstanding as it was usual in recent years at the junior Europeans, their anthem was played four times on Thursday and as a bonus Maria Astashkina broke the junior WR in the 200m breaststroke, and later again, as member of the triumphant 4x100m medley relay.
Ten Russian medals in eight finals
The Russian swimmers were on fire in the water at the European Games in Baku (AZE): they collected 10 medals in eight finals, four of them gold. The rest of the titles went to France, Great Britain, Germany and the Netherlands.
Golden Britain: three titles on the opening day
British swimmers got things going in Baku, on the first day of the swimming competition at the European Games, as they clinched three titles in seven finals. Russia captured two while Germany and Ukraine could also be happy with one gold apiece.
Jeanette Ottesen, the Danish world swimming champion, and her boyfriend Marco Loughran, an English backstroke specialist who competed in the 2012 Olympics, were both injured after being assaulted during a road rage attack on Østerbrogade in Copenhagen on Sunday.
Ottesen, whose injuries might jeopardise her chances of competing in the next major championship, told TV2 Sport the alleged attacker was angered because he thought she was driving too slowly and was not quick enough pulling away when a red light turned green.
Of foreign appearance
Ottesen said the man, who she described as being of “foreign appearanceâ€, nearly “drove into them†and then pulled in front of their car and cut them off. He then pulled Loughran out of the car and attacked him.“A lot of people with foreign backgrounds pulled Marco away from the man and told him to get lost,†Ottesen said. “They were quite intimidating.â€
Cheap shots
But as they tried to leave, the man returned to the car and continued to punch Loughran, this time pummelling him repeatedly where he sat, through the car’s open window.Loughran was severely injured, suffering a split eyebrow, several broken teeth, an injured shoulder and a scalp injury.
“We had safety belts on, so we couldn’t do anything,†Ottesen said. “Marco was trying to take off his seatbelt and I was trying to protect his face. That is when my fingers were injured.â€
When Ottesen tried to defend Loughran, one of her fingers was broken and another one sprained.
Bad timing
The timing of the injuries could be critical for Ottesen. She has been told she cannot swim for the next three weeks, putting her chances of competing in the FINA World Aquatics Championships, which start on July 24, in serious jeopardy.She is taking some time off to recover from the injury and said that she has experienced pain when she has tried to swim since the incident.
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On 31 July 2013, FINA has conducted an in-competition doping control test on Ms Kylie Palmer, member of the Australian National Team with the occasion of the FINA World Championships held in Barcelona (ESP). The sample provided by the athlete showed low levels of a prohibited substance.
As per the FINA DC Rule 7.1.2, this matter was forwarded to the FINA DCRB for their review and recommendations on 3 August 2013.
During its review, the FINA DCRB noted that on 1 August 2013 a random sample was obtained from the same competitor within 24 hours of the index test (31 July 2013). The competitor had earlier undergone blood testing on 25 July 2013, a further blood test was performed on 1 August 2013. All those tests proved negative.
Consequently, the FINA DCRB sought additional information from the laboratory on the index test. The FINA DCRB also recommended FINA to conduct two further target testing on the swimmer. All those additional tests proved negative.
In January 2014, the FINA DCRB recommended to FINA that no further action is needed to be taken in the matter of Ms Kylie Palmer as the details of this case were carefully considered by the members of the FINA DCRB who expressed concerns about proceeding with the case given the low levels of the prohibited substance detected, the absence of this substance in a subsequent test, the absence of any other prohibited substance in the samples.
In February 2015, WADA requested FINA for some information on the matter of Ms Kylie Palmer. FINA provided to WADA all the requested documents in this case.
Following review of those documents, WADA decided to file an appeal with the Court of Arbitration of Sport in Lausanne (SUI) and requested CAS to order FINA to bring forward the 31 July 2013 findings as an anti-doping rule violation in accordance with DC 7.1.3 et seq.
Following WADA’s confirmation, on 13 April 2015 FINA sent correspondence to Ms Kylie Palmer and to Swimming Australia notifying about the positive test from Barcelona. The athlete requested the B sample analysis which also showed low levels of the prohibited substance. In accordance with the FINA DC Rules the matter of Ms Kylie Palmer has been forwarded to the FINA Doping Panel for further considerations and final decision.
On 16 June 2015, Ms Palmer informed FINA that she accepted voluntary Provisional Suspension and that she will refrain from competing pending the final resolution of this matter.
