76
QQQ Daily Mail, Tuesday, March 3, 2020Swimming’s
Sun blindness
stinks. Sack
the board now
MARTIN
SAMUEL
chief sports writer
‘strictly avoid any offensive or
improper behaviour towards offi-
cials, other competitors, team
members or spectators during the
competition’. They circled their
wagons around drugs cheat Sun.
Cate Campbell, a world record
holder, Olympic gold medallist
and team-mate of Horton, said
tough questions needed to be
asked of FINA’s executives. She’s
right. ‘What are you still doing
here?’ That would be the first one.
And: ‘Why don’t you f*** off?’
That would be the second. And,
yes, crude. But so is smashing
tainted blood vials with a ham-
mer. It’s a bit late to aim for a bat-
tle of wits on the moral high
ground. We just need them gone.
So how do we achieve that? And
this is the difficult part, because it
involves the IOC and that noted
lickspittle of Russian drug cheats,
president Thomas Bach. If the
IOC said swimming was out of the
next Olympics unless the regime
at the top of FINA changed, Magl-
ione and Marculescu would have
to stand down for the good of their
sport. If Bach announced FINA
could not be trusted to deliver
clean competition with that pair
at the helm, it would be over. The
move from clean athletes and
clean countries to preserve swim-
ming’s Olympic status would be
so strong, FINA’s executive would
have no option but to resign.
That was the IOC’s threat to
weightlifting in 2000: go clean or
go home. For a while it worked,
but the sport is under scrutiny
again, threatened with expulsion
in 2024 unless improvements are
made. It does have impact. The
IOC have the capability to be an
enormously powerful force for
clean sport, if they are prepared
to take that responsibility. And
this is the place to start. FINA is
not fit for purpose. Sun’s legacy is
that his spilled blood should at
last wash swimming clean.the weak punishment and the
cover-up that followed.
Is it any wonder? ‘China is a very
valuable partner for FINA,’ said
their president Julio Maglione at
the 2017 World Aquatics Gala in
Sanya, Hainan Province. At the
2016 Olympics, Sun described
FINA chief executive Cornel Mar-
culescu as ‘a very good friend of
the Chinese swim team’. Maglione
is 84, Marculescu 78 — they have
held their respective positions for
a combined 44 years.
And so to last year’s FINA World
Championships in Gwangju,
South Korea, where Sun was
allowed to compete despite that
unpleasantness with the vials. As
protests from athletes grew, FINA
at last took action — against
those campaigning for clean
sport. Mack Horton, the Austral-
ian who led the way by refusing to
shake Sun’s hand or join him on
the podium having finished sec-
ond in the 400m freestyle, was
said to have behaved in an ‘unac-
ceptable’ manner by FINA. They
rushed through a rule command-
ing podium appearances and
d e m a n d i n g t h a t s w i m m e r sEAT yoUR woRdS, joE
S
ACK FINA. After
the disgrace of the
Sun Yang doping
case, swimming’s
governing body has
no authority and no credi-
bility. Its entire executive
should be removed now, if
the sport is to regain trust.
It cannot move forward
with the present hierarchy
in charge. It is time to go.
Why now? At the Court of Arbi-
tration for Sport, in a battle
between WADA and a repeat-
offending drugs cheat, FINA took
the side of the cheat. Sun Yang
had already been banned for the
use of illegal stimulant trimetazi-
dine when he was visited by test-
ers in September 2018.
A row at his home ended with
vials of his blood being deliber-
ately smashed — ‘tampered with’
was CAS’s genteel description —
by a Chinese team doctor, Ba
Zhen, who had previously been
suspended twice by WADA. Sun
also refused to give a urine
sample.
FINA’s initial punishment was a
caution; it was left to WADA to
appeal it, with an eight-year ban
the result. FINA could have taken
a neutral stance, but instead
worked against WADA, first sup-
porting a move to prevent the
participation of lead prosecutor
Richard Young, then supporting a
plea of inadmissibility on a filing
technicality.
FINA, and Sun, lost both claims
and for now the taint remains.
Sun has announced he will be
challenging the CAS verdict and
no doubt FINA will back that,
too. Why are they so soft on him?
Throughout, FINA’s indulgence
of Sun has stunk. Alarm bells
should have rung in 2014 when he
tested positive at China’s national
championships. The failure was
not made public but dealt with
in-house by China’s anti-doping
authorities. Their punishment? A
paltry three-month ban and £500
fine, freeing Sun to compete in
the Asian Games where he won
three gold medals. Then, six
months later, Sun’s positive test
was announced. FINA turned a
blind eye to both the cheating,Real MaDRiD beat Barcelona to go top of la
liga. it wasn’t a classic Clasico, but Joe Hart
(right) among others might now note that
Manchester City’s 2-1 win at the Bernabeu isn’t
looking like such a missed opportunity.Boro fury
as Lewis
grabs late
equaliser
THIS felt cruel on a spirited
Middlesbrough, but Jonathan
Woodgate was wrong to claim
Nottingham Forest’s late
equaliser was unjust.
The Boro boss had seen his side
move to within four minutes of a
first win in 10 matches, a victory
that would have lifted them out of
the Championship bottom three.
But Forest striker Lewis Grabban
pounced in the six-yard area to
claim a point after standing his
ground amid a tussle with
goalkeeper Aynsley Pears. It was a
legitimate goal and a clever finish,
but Woodgate felt differently.
‘Nine times out of 10 that goal is
not counted,’ he fumed. ‘If you
look at any contact on the keeper
it is always given. He backed into
Aynsley, put his arm across his
chest, he couldn’t get anywhere
near it. It was a bad decision.’
Forest boss Sabri Lamouchi
disagreed. ‘Easily, no foul,’ he
said. ‘I saw the replay, Lewis never
touched the keeper. And we
deserved to score anyway.’
Before that, Boro had looked the
likely and deserved winners. It felt
as if their desperation for three
points was greater than that of
their visitors, who look resigned
to finished in the play-offs having
fallen eight points behind
second-placed Leeds.
Woodgate is fighting to stay in the
division, not get out of it, and his
side remain one point from safety.
On the day that chairman Steve
Gibson revealed he would not
sack Woodgate regardless of
Boro’s fate this season, a win
would have been timely.
The weekend’s results had not
been kind to Boro — sucking
them into the relegation zone for
the first time since October — and
when Forest took the lead just shy
of the half-hour their situation
grew more bleak.
To that point the hosts had barely
looked capable of creating a
chance, let alone scoring a goal,
so when Forest midfielder Ryan
Yates drilled in from 20 yards you
suspected Boro were beaten.
What unfolded in the final fiveminutes of the first half, then, was
entirely unexpected. Not only did
the home side score a goal for the
first time in five and a half hours
of football, it was forgotten
frontman Rudy Gestede who
provided their moment of relief,
heading in his first home goal in
two years.
Harold Moukoudi nodded Paddy
McNair’s free-kick back acrossNet flick: Grabban scores REX
Football
SPoRT IN BRIEF
MI ddLESBRoUgh 2
NoTTM FoREST 2
CRAIg hoPE
at the Riverside Stadiumhow theY stAND
goal and Gestede showed the
greatest desire amid a crowd of
bodies to force the ball in.
Buoyed by the rarity of a goal,
the home fans urged their side to
press for more in the final minutes
of the half — and they obliged.
Lewis Wing may have been the
eventual scorer — steering in
from 12 yards — but all of the
credit went to 21-year-old left
back Hayden Coulson, who
assisted with a fine solo dribble.
Coulson was the game’s best
player by some distance and
deserved to end on the winning
side, but it was not to be.P W D l F a GD Pts
West Brom ...... 36 19 12 5 64 37 27 69
leeds .............. 36 20 8 8 54 30 24 68
Fulham ............ 36 18 9 9 51 37 14 63
Nottm Forest .. 36 16 12 8 48 35 13 60
Brentford ....... 36 16 9 11 59 33 26 57
Preston ........... 36 16 8 12 49 42 7 56
Bristol City ...... 36 15 9 12 50 52 -2 54
Blackburn ....... 36 14 11 11 52 42 10 53
Swansea ......... 36 13 13 10 46 45 1 52
Millwall ........... 36 12 15 9 41 40 1 51
Cardiff ............. 36 12 15 9 50 50 0 51
Sheff Wed ....... 36 13 9 14 46 44 2 48
Derby .............. 36 12 12 12 46 49 -3 48
QPR .................. 36 13 8 15 55 61 -6 47
Birmingham ... 36 12 11 13 47 54 -7 47
Reading .......... 36 12 9 15 43 41 2 45
Huddersfield .. 36 11 9 16 45 56 -11 42
Hull .................. 36 11 8 17 48 58 -10 41
Wigan .............. 36 10 10 16 38 50 -12 40
Charlton ......... 36 10 9 17 44 53 -9 39
Stoke ............... 36 11 6 19 44 54 -10 39
Middlesbro ..... 36 8 14 14 36 47 -11 38
Barnsley ......... 36 8 10 18 42 60 -18 34
luton .............. 36 10 4 22 43 71 -28 34Tarnished gold: Sun Yang AFP
eMiRaTeS Fa CuP FiFTH RouND
PoRTSMouTH.... (0) 0 aRSeNal... .(1) 2
18,8 39 Sokratis 45
Nketiah 51
SkY BeT CHaMPioNSHiP
MiDDleSBRo.... (2) 2 NoTTM FoReST (1) 2
Gestede 40 Yates 29 18,884
Wing 44 Grabban 86
÷BasketBall
NBa: Charlotte 85 Milwaukee 93;
Denver 133 Toronto 118; Golden State
110 Washington 124; LA Clippers 136
Philadelphia 130; Minnesota 91 Dallas
111; New Orleans 114 LA Lakers 122;
Sacramento 106 Detroit 100.
÷cricket
iCC WoMeNS WoRlD T20 - Group a
— Melbourne: australia 155-5 (20
overs), New Zealand 151-7 (20 overs).
Australia (2pts) won by 4 runs.
Melbourne: Bangladesh 91-8 (20
overs), Sri lanka 92-1 (15.3 overs). Sri
Lanka (2pts) won by 9 wickets.
P W l T NR Pts RR
(Q) india.............. 4 4 0 0 0 8 0.98
(Q) australia....... 4 3 1 0 0 6 0.97
New Zealand....... 4 2 2 0 0 4 0.36
Sri lanka............. 4 1 3 0 0 2 -0.40
Bangladesh......... 4 0 4 0 0 0 -1.91TouR MaTCH (Day 1 of 4, midnight
start) — Wollongong: NSW 2nd Xi
242-4 (90 overs; R Hackney 95) v
england lions.
÷Golf
HoNDa ClaSSiC (Palm Beach
Gardens, Florida) — Final rnd: 274
— S Im (Kor) 72 66 70 66; 275 —
M Hughes (Can) 71 72 66 66; 276 —
T Fleetwood (Eng) 70 68 67 71.÷ice hockey
NHl: Anaheim 0 New Jersey 3;
Columbus 5 Vancouver 3; Florida 0
Calgary 3; Minnesota 3 Washington
4; NY Rangers 3 Philadelphia 5;
Vegas 1 Los Angeles 4.
÷NetBall
NeTBall SuPeRleaGue: Surrey
Storm 50 London Pulse 51, Wasps
Netball 57 Saracens Mavericks 53.
÷squash
WiNDY CiTY oPeN (Chicago) — Men’s
3rd rnd: S Rosner (G) bt A Waller
(Eng) 11-8 11-4 11-9; P Coll (NZ) bt D
James (Eng) 11-6 8-11 11-4 11-6. Women’s
3 rd rnd: R elaraby (Egy) bt L Turmel
(Eng) 11-7 11-7 11-1; S-J Perry (Eng) bt Y
Adel (Egy) 7-11 11-7 5-11 11-5 11-9.÷toDay’s actioN
(7.45 unless stated)
eMiRaTeS F a CuP F iFTH RouND
Chelsea v liverpool ..........................
Live on BBC One
Reading v Sheff utd ................... (8.0)
West Brom v Newcastle ............ (8.0)
Live on BBC Interactive
SkY BeT leaGue oNe: Ipswich v
Fleetwood Tn.
SkY BeT leaGue TWo: Exeter v
Crewe, Plymouth v Grimsby, Swindon
v Scunthorpe.
SCoTTiSH P ReMie RSHiP
Hibernian v Hearts ............................
Live on BT Sport 1
SCoTTiSH — Championship: Ayr v
Dundee Utd, Dundee v Alloa, Inverness
CT v Morton, Partick v Queen of South.
league one: Clyde v Montrose,
Dumbarton v Forfar, Raith v Falkirk.
league Two: Cowdenbeath v Albion,
Stirling v Stenhousemuir.
VaNaRaMa NaTioNal lGe: Barnet
v Boreham Wood, Chesterfield v
Harrogate Tn, Chorley v Eastleigh, FC
Halifax v Sutton Utd, Solihull Moors v
Hartlepool, AFC Fylde v Notts County.
CRiCkeT — iCC Womens World
T20 - Group B: Pakistan v Thailand
(Sydney, 4am), West Indies v South
Africa (Sydney, 8am).