Problem-Plagued Commonwealth Games OK On Doping Front With One Week To Go
Posted October 9, 2010 2:34 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The Commonwealth Games have been completely clean so far on at least one front: 500 athletes who have been tested for doping have all been given the all-clear.
Commonwealth Games Federation president Mike Fennell told a news conference Saturday that 1,500 doping tests were planned during the Games period, “and that target remains.” He said all tests conducted up to Thursday had come back negative, “and that is a positive result.”
The federation is responsible for testing the athletes and the World Anti-Doping Agency is observing. Fennell said the number of tests will increase in pace with the number of finals — under the testing regime, all medal winners are tested and some are done randomly.
It was good news for the Games, which have been plagued by stomach illnesses affecting some swimmers, near-empty stadiums, construction delays, concerns about dengue fever and filthy conditions in the athletes’ village before the Games began.
Canada won 11 medals on Saturday: three gold, six silver and two bronze.
All three golds came inside the aquatics centre, where Brent Hayden of Mission, B.C., completed a freestyle sprint double by winning the 50-metre final to go with his previous gold in the 100.
Ryan Cochrane won his second gold of the Games by finishing first in the 1,500 freestyle. He won gold on the opening day in the 400 freestyle. Benoit Huot of Longueuil, Que., added a gold in the 100-metre freestyle S10 category.
Audrey Lacroix of Pont-Rouge, Que., won two medals on the day. She took the silver in the women’s 200 butterfly and won a bronze in the 4×100 medley relay with Julia Wilkinson of Stratford, Ont., Annamay Pierce of Edmonton and Victoria Poon of Montreal.
Jessica Zelinka of London, Ont., won silver in the women’s heptathlon and archer Doris Jones of Selkirk, Man., won silver in the women’s individual compound event.
In freestyle wrestling, James Mancini of Montreal won silver in the 60-kilogram event and Korey Jarvis of Guelph, Ont., won silver in the 96-kilo division. Evan MacDonald of St. Catharines, Ont., added bronze in the 74-kilo category.
In women’s weightlifting, Marie-Eve Beauchemin-Nadeau of Candiac, Que., won silver in the 75-kilogram division.
After six days of competition, Canada remained fourth overall in the medal standings with 50 (17 gold, 11 silver, 22 bronze). Australia leads with 116 medals, followed by England with 96 and host India with 58.
Organizing committee officials said ticket sales for the Games, which end Oct. 14, are approaching the million mark — 946,000 as of Friday, including nearly 55,000 sold Friday alone. And they said the reason for half-empty stadiums where tickets are reportedly sold out was that corporate sponsors were not passing thousands of them along to clients.
In parts of the Commonwealth, the organizational blunders would be described as a bit of a “dog’s breakfast.”
It was no great surprise when a stray dog, common on the streets of New Delhi, sauntered onto the track at the main stadium and into the infield Saturday morning, bringing hoots and roars of laughter from the crowd as workers tried to catch him.
“It’s not an uncommon phenomenon,” said IAAF technical director Keith Davies, who attends track meets around the world. “We’ve had dogs, we’ve had cats, foxes.”
After roaming the track and evading two workers dispatched to shoo him off, the dog disappeared through a tunnel near the 100-metre starting line and disappeared.
The track invasion happened not long after Fennell had delivered his latest request for local organizers to improve the ticket sales situation.
“On attendance, it is not fully satisfactory,” Fennell said. “We will continue to keep pressure on the organizing committee to what can be done, whether it be sales or complimentary tickets to groups.”
An outbreak of dengue fever was a concern after the prolonged monsoon season here, heightened after an Indian Commonwealth Games lawn bowls team official was admitted to hospital last week with the potentially fatal disease.
Nigerian table tennis player Ekundayo Nasiru withdrew from competition on Saturday, but officials with the team said it was for malaria, another mosquito-born disease which is prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa but not a major concern in the Indian capital.
“We took Nasiru to the polyclinic and I can confirm that he has been diagnosed with malaria and no other disease,” Elias Gora, chef-de-mission of the Nigerian team, told The Associated Press.
The first two of 32 gold medals available Saturday went to Australia’s Jared Tallent and England’s Jo Jackson in the men’s and women’s 20-kilometre race walks. Jackson beat Tallent’s wife, Claire.
Those were also the first events held outside the heavily secured venues, protected by 100,000 police and military. And they were conducted without a hitch. The men’s and women’s road races will be held Sunday in the streets of downtown New Delhi.
Inside the aquatics centre, Australia was again the dominant nation, finishing the six-day swim meet with 22 gold medals. Alicia Coutts won five of those to lead the individual count at New Delhi, and veteran Leisel Jones picked up her third in a week to join Australian swimming greats Susie O’Neill and Ian Thorpe with a record career haul of 10 Commonwealth Games titles.
World and Olympic champion Valerie Adams easily won the shot put gold medal, breaking her own Commonwealth Games record with her first attempt of 20.47 metres in an evening athletics final.
“Job done,” Adams said. “That is what I wanted, to rip it up and throw big and win gold.”
Kenya’s Mark Kiprotich Muttai won the 400 in 45.44 seconds and his compatriots swept the medals in the women’s steeplechase, with Milcah Chemos Cheywa winning in nine minutes 40.96seconds.
Australia’s Russian-born Anastasia Rodionova upset India’s hopes of winning the first tennis gold medal ever awarded at the Commonwealth Games when she beat second-seeded Sania Mirza 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 (3) in the women’s singles final.
Australian pair Paul Hanley and Peter Lukzac won the men’s doubles.
But India remained on target at the range, where Gagan Narang won the men’s 50-metrerifle three positions final to claim his fourth gold medal at New Delhi 2010. He has contributed one-third of India’s 12 golds in shooting.
Archer Duncan Busby edged compatriot Chris White in the individual compound final to register England’s 600th gold medal in Commonwealth Games history.
Faavae Faauliuli made history at the other end of the spectrum, claiming Samoa’s first Commonwealth Games gold medal when he won the men’s 94-kilogram weightlifting title with a total of 334 kilograms.
“I feel happy and proud,” Faauliuli said. “All my countrymen will be happy about my gold.”
