English concede early

Thorpe eyes magnificent seven at Commonwealths

MANCHESTER (Reuters) -- Australian swimmer Ian Thorpe, who vowed never to put things off until another day after a harrowing experience in New York on September 11, is determined to make sporting history at the Commonwealth Games which open on Thursday.

The 19-year-old's bid to become the first competitor to win seven gold medals at one Games in the 72-year-old history of the event promises to be the highlight of the 17-sport festival.

Britain's biggest multi-sport event could mark a special chapter in the sporting life of Thorpe who was on his way to a business meeting in the World Trade Center on the morning when it was destroyed by two hijacked planes.

The Australian asked his taxi driver to turn back because one of his friends had left a camera in the hotel. In the time that he was delayed the first plane crashed into one of the Twin Towers.

"I was so fortunate and lucky not to have been involved in all of it. I'd come co close and it certainly made me stop a little and think and reassess my life, " Thorpe said.

"Instead of doing things tomorrow, I decided I'd try to start doing things today."

In contrast to the Olympics where athletics takes place in the second half of the Games, the swimming will get top billing in Manchester.

With the European athletics championships due to start inn Munich immediately after the Games close on August 4, organizers have scheduled the track and field first, so the aquatics will dominate the last six days of competition.

Australian dominance

Australia have won more medals than any other nation since the event began in 1930 when it was called the British Empire Games.

The country's swimmer Susie O'Neill won six titles at the last Games in Kuala Lumpur in 1998 to top the all-time gold medal-winners list with 10 titles. Canadian Graham Smith also won six swimming titles at the 1978 Games.

But Thorpe, who won four Commonwealth titles in 1998 at the age of 15 including notching up a world record in the 4X200 meters freestyle relay, will take the Games into new territory if he achieves his feat.

"My motivation remains the same as it has always been: to fulfil my own expectations and to be the best swimmer I can possibly be," said the Australian, who won the 400 freestyle and was second in the 200 freestyle at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

Britain may bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics if Manchester stages a successful event. Security is tight in the northern English city after September 11 with up to 4,000 competitors expected to arrive in the days before the opening ceremony at the City of Manchester Stadium.

The highlight of the athletics in the stadium will be the men's 100 meters where Dwain Chambers, who beat world champion and world record holder Maurice Greene earlier this season, and Mark Lewis-Francis, both of England, take on Namibia's Frankie Fredericks and Kim Collins of St Kitts and Nevis.

Although it takes place in the middle of the Tri-nations season involving Australia, South Africa and New Zealand, the rugby sevens in the last days of the Games promises to be an exciting competition.

The Games have never staged so many sports before. The other disciplines are badminton, bowls, boxing, cycling, gymnastics, hockey, judo, netball, shooting, squash, weightlifting, wrestling, table tennis and triathlon.

Competitors face blood tests for EPO

Competitors at the Commonwealth Games will face blood and urine tests for the first time for stamina-boosting erythropoietin (EPO), one of the most dangerous banned drugs abused in top-class sport.

Doping officials said on Monday that athletes in endurance events in swimming, athletics and cycling as well as in the triathlon would be tested for the drug which boosts the number of oxygen-carrying red cells in the blood.

This delays the onset of fatigue, meaning an athlete can run harder and for longer.

"There are four sports at the Games where EPO could be an advantage. Blood sampling will be part of the testing," Games medical chief Brian Sando said ahead of Thursday's opening of the 17-sport event.

The announcement cleared up concerns from the Australian team that blood testing might not be carried out in swimming.

Australia's Olympic champion swimmer Ian Thorpe, the most high-profile competitor at the Games, had expressed his disappointment at suggestions that it might not be part of the anti-drug program.

The combined blood and urine test for EPO, the drug at the center of the notorious 1998 Tour de France doping scandal, was introduced at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

It was also used at last year's World Athletics Championships in Edmonton and at this year's Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

The substance is dangerous because it can thicken the blood and is believed to have been responsible for deaths in cycling in the past.

It is said to be used by athletes who live by the motto: "Better dead than second."

Thousand tests

Sando said a total of around 1,000 drug tests would be carried out at the Games, meaning a quarter of the 4,000 competitors taking part in the event will face drug tests.

In addition to EPO, tests are carried out for other serious drugs such as steroids or stimulants.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is also carrying out random out-of-competition tests in the run-up to the Games. WADA observers will also monitor the testing at the Games.

Sando said competitors would not be stopped from competing for health reasons, even if their samples showed elevated red blood cell levels.

Some sports such as cross-country skiing have barred competitors in the past from taking part if their blood had been suspicious on the day of competition.

"I don't think you can stop athletes from competing," he said. "That has never been applied at the Commonwealth Games and I don't see that being the case here."

British officials have also carried out around 1,000 random tests on their athletes and competitors from some other countries in the last two to three weeks.

The run-up to the Games has been dominated by talk of drug abuse in sport after English pole vaulter Janine Whitlock tested positive for steroids and pulled out of the Games.

England gives up on medal table

England all but conceded the Commonwealth Games medal chase to Australia on Monday, three days before the Games begin.

Australia headed the medals table at the last Games in Kuala Lumpur with 199, while England won 136 medals. The Australians have talked about winning more than 200 medals for these games, which run from July 25 until August 4.

But England chef-de-mission Anne Hogbin said on Monday the best the 433-strong England team could hope for was to close the gap on Australia.

"In KL [Kuala Lumpur] we won 136 medals and we are confident that we can improve on that in Manchester," Hogbin said at a news conference. "But it would be unrealistic to beat Australia, but we certainly hope to narrow the gap on the overall medal table and to come out on top in some sports.

"Recent competitions have shown that we are stronger than ever, so who knows on a good day we may have a few surprises."

Hogbin said that England had aimed for an overall total of about 145 medals, though she was unsure of the targets individual sports had set with Sport England, which contributed more than 3.5 million pounds (US$5.52 million) to fund the elite athletes program for the Games.

The England team was now beginning to feel the pressure of expectation from the local public, she said.

"We are the home team and everyone wants to do well. We want to do well," she told Reuters.

"One never knows maybe the extra boost from the home crowd can lift someone who is coming fourth into a medal place.

"But, we are being realistic. We don't want to make a statement that 'we are going to whop the Aussies' because it can come back and hit us in the face."

Hogbin said the increased funding from the national lottery had boosted England's performance hopes and the Games might be the best chance ever to close the gap on the Australians in a short space of time.

"It is the closest chance we have ever had to date and in the next four years we will narrow the gap further as more funding comes in."

Briton Whitlock suspended pending drugs hearing

British pole-vaulter Janine Whitlock has been suspended from competition by UK Athletics pending a disciplinary hearing into her failed drugs test.

Whitlock, who was seen as a contender for gold at this month's Commonwealth Games in Manchester, tested positive for the anabolic steroid methandienone at the Games trials last month.

An independent drugs advisory officer (DAO) has ruled that the 28-year-old has a case to answer after the positive test on her A sample.

She could face a two-year ban if a test on her B sample is also positive.

"Following the adverse finding of methandienone in the urine sample given by Whitlock on June 16, a review of the evidence has been conducted by the independent DAO," a statement from UK Athletics said on Monday.

"As a result of this review, the DAO considers that there is prima facie evidence that a doping offence has been committed and therefore the matter must be considered at a disciplinary hearing.

"UK Athletics has therefore suspended Janine Whitlock from competition from July 19 pending a hearing before an independent disciplinary committee."

The sport's British ruling body revealed on July 14 that Whitlock had tested positive.

Whitlock has since protested her innocence, claiming her sports drink has been tampered with.

"I'm innocent, I've done nothing wrong and that's the truth," she was quoted as saying last week.

"I can't help what other people think, but I am going to stay strong. It's been a nightmare since I was told but I know at the end of the day I am innocent."

Whitlock has been Britain's leading pole-vaulter for six years and set her latest national record of 4.41 meters at the Commonwealth Games trials last month.

She has been omitted from the British team for next month's European championships.

Council chief: 6,000 jobs -- and no white elephants

Manchester Council believes more than 6,000 long-term jobs will be created in the northern England city as a result of hosting the Commonwealth Games.

"More than 6,000 jobs will be created over the next 10 years and 300,000 extra visitors will spend 12 million pounds [$19 million] in the region every year," council leader Richard Leese told a news conference on Sunday.

"We have invested heavily in the infrastructure and uses have been identified for every facility after the Games.

"There will be no white elephants and the facilities will be used by everyone from elite athletes to the local community. These will have economic and health benefits for Manchester."

More than 170 million pounds ($268.5 million) of lottery money was given to organizers to build new venues, like the main stadium and a new aquatic center, or upgrade existing ones.

At the completion of the Games, the main stadium -- which is hosting athletics and rugby sevens -- will be converted to a soccer ground by removing the athletics track and adding extra seating.

English premier league side Manchester City will then become the primary tenants of the stadium.

As part of the lease the club is expected to make the stadium available for 100 days of community use each year while the rent will be based on the percentage of ticket sales.

New developments

The Sportscity development east of the city center -- where the stadium and a new national squash center and a tennis center have been built and which will also house an English Institute of Sport -- has also regenerated the area with new shopping and housing developments.

"The council identified sport and leisure as a catalyst for regeneration 15 years ago," Leese added.

"In [unsuccessfully] bidding for the Olympic Games [for 1996 and 2000] we started to see the benefits. We jumped at the chance to bid for the Commonwealth Games."

The Games have taken on added significance for the government after the embarrassing loss of hosting rights for the 2005 World Athletics Championships and the ongoing saga over the national stadium at Wembley.

Such was its importance, the Games was given an 80 million pounds ($126 million) guarantee in June 2001 by the Department of Media, Sport and Culture and funding body Sport England.

This was to meet the construction costs and aid in the running of what is the single biggest multi-sport event hosted in Britain.

Transport problems will affect visitors, paper says

Strikes and motorway structural work threaten to cause problems for visitors to the Commonwealth Games, a newspaper report said on Monday.

The Manchester Evening News said train drivers for First North Western rail company had indicated they would strike on three dates during the Games that run from July 24 to August 5.

Conductors for Arriva Trains Northern were also expected to walk off the job on Thursday.

Commonwealth Games Chief Executive Frances Done appealed to the unions to halt their action during what is the largest multi-sport event of its kind to be hosted in the Britain.

"We need to think very carefully how we show ourselves to the rest of the world," Done was quoted as saying in the newspaper.

Organizers are expecting an enormous influx of visitors to the Games.

The newspaper also said structural work on the M6 motorway, which is the main route running from the Midlands through the north-west of England, had reduced the motorway to three lanes each way and caused severe traffic delays over the weekend.

Work on the motorway was expected to take at least six months to complete.

 

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