PERTH, January 14: China's swimming programme suffered further shame today when four members of the World Championship team were exposed as testing positive to a banned drug.Three females, Wang Luna, Cai Huijue and Zhang Yi and male Wang Wei tested positive to triamterene, a diuretic, and were suspended from the championships pending results of their second, or B, tests.
The samples were collected on January 8, the morning after drug testers were refused access to China's swimmers because they lacked the suitable accreditation.
"It just proves something is going on," United States coach Jon Urbanchek told the Associated Press.
"On the night of the 7th people showed up to test the Chinese and they did not submit to testing because they did not believe it was a FINA sanctioned test."
"The next day FINA turned up in their jackets with their official badges and did the testing. During the night they've (Chinese officials) obviously given these to these to the kids as a masking agent."
FINA secretary
Gunnar Werner was shocked by the results, and there may be more.
Twelve swimmers were tested on January 8 but not all of the results have been returned by the laboratory, according to a FINA spokesman.
Further tests were done on January 9 as more Chinese swimmers arrived from Beijing.
The results were announced in a FINA release which also outlined a four-year ban to swimmer Yuan Yuan and 15-year ban to coach Zhou Zhewen, who were caught attempting to bring banned growth hormones into Australia on the day before the 12 were tested.
Zhang, who competed in the 100-metre breaststroke, told the Associated Press on Tuesday that she took exception to drug claims against the team.
"Generally speaking, many of the swimmers have a cold and are feeling tired," Zhang said in way of explanation for a drop-off in times.
Chinese officials said on arrival that the team was clean of drugs.
Chen Yan has won two gold medals, in the women's 400-metre individual medley and the 400-metre freestyle raced on
Wednesday.
Zeng Qiliang won a silver medal in 100-metre men's breaststroke. Shan Ying won bronze in the 100-metre freestyle.
Werner admitted it was unlikely any action would be taken against China in time to stop them from finishing the meet.
"We have not considered (action) yet," Werner said. "I have to say that I don't think we will take any step in that direction here at the championships."
According to the International Olympic Committee's anti-doping charter, diuretics are sometimes used to flush other drugs out of the system to prevent detection.
"(They) reduce the concentration of drugs in urine by producing a more rapid excretion of urine to attempt to minimise detection of drug misuse," the charter says.
The samples were collected on the opening day of the championships and the analysis was made at the Australian government analytical laboratory, which carries an International Olympic Committee accreditation.
Wang Luna was ranked No 2 in the world for the 200-metre freestyle, and fourth
on the all-time list ahead of this meet but missed the final. She raced on Wednesday in the 400-metre heats but again missed the final despite a world No 4 ranking.
Cai Huijue is ranked No 5 in 100-metre butterfly and Zhang Yi is No 4 in 100-metre breaststroke and No 3 in the 200-metre breaststroke.
FINA also announced a four-year ban on Ukrainian Olena Lapunova for testing positive to a metabolite on November 15 last year. She was given a conditional approval to return on probation in six months. Australian Scott Miller was suspended for two months for testing positive to marijuana on September 22 last year.
Popov asserts supremacy: Four-time Olympic gold medal winner Alexander Popov took the lead from the start, made the turn first and was never seriously threatened by Klim. Both are coached by Russian Gennadi Touretski and train together at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra.
Popov is attempting to become the first man to win a 50 and 100-metre double at successive world titles.
He achieved the Olympic double for the second consecutive time at Atlanta. The 50-metre race will be held on Saturday.
Popov finished in 48.93 seconds while Klim, who won the 200-metre freestyle and was a member of the winning 4x200-metre relay team, was second in 49.20.
The 26-year-old Popov joins American Matt Biondi as the only swimmer to successfully defend a men's world 100-metre freestyle title in the 25-year history of the championships.
What they said
It tells you what bloody liars they are. They should be kicked out of the championships. The medals should be returned or taken back. The athletes in my team that bust their asses are being hurt -- Australian coach Don Talbot You can get isolated incidents with any country at any time. But this is not an isolated incident. It is systematic abuse...I am not a chemist, but China must be faced with a suspension after this -- Britain's performance director Deryk Snelling A number of years ago, there was a thing
called Tiananmen Square and all the cameras of the world were on Tiananmen Square and the government denied what was taking place. The mentality of the swim group and their delegation is not much different than that -- Olympic great Mark Spitz Instinctively, personally, I'm really disappointed. I don't really understand why they are doing this -- FINA secretary Gunnar Werner They have the right to ask. But if they had a vote today, I think maybe they'd be in trouble -- International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Juan Antonio Samaranch when asked if it was possible for China to advance a bid to host the 2008 summer Olympics.Danish pharmaceutical group Novo Nordisk said it produced the human growth hormone found in the luggage of a Chinese swimmer upon arriving in Australia for the World Championships, news reports said today.Novo Nordisk said it sold Norditropin to a Chinese state-owned import company and was intended for hospitals in China.
``We have no clue on how
the growth hormone ended up in the wrong hands, '' Novo Nordisk spokesman Anders Rosbo was quoted as saying by Danish media.
The substance ``should only be given to children with hormone deficiencies,'' Rosbo said. ``We have been working with the IOC to find a way of identifying the drug in people's blood.''
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
