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MANCHESTER, July 22: 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 Aug 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,”
“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 ($5.52 million) to fund the elite athletes programme 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.”
BLOOD TEST: Commonwealth Games athletes could be blood tested for performing-enhancing drugs, the Australian team’s medical director said Monday.
Australian Olympic and world swimming champion Ian Thorpe said last week he was disappointed that athletes at the Games would not be blood tested, particularly for substances like the blood boosting erythropoietin (EPO).
But Australian team doctor Peter Fricker said that the Commonwealth Games Federation medical commission may introduce blood testing as well as the normal urine tests for the Games, which run from July 25 until Aug 4.
“The protocols will follow the IOC provisions and there will be urine testing and we have been advised that there ‘may be’ , and I use that in quotes, blood testing as well,” Fricker told a news conference on Monday.
“No-one has said there will be no blood testing but we are awaiting for more advice from the federation’s medical commission who will make a decision on Wednesday.
“But what we are advising our athletes is that there will be urine testing and they should be prepared for blood testing as well.”
Fricker said one of the reasons the commission had not made a public announcement before the Games was to keep the blood testing as a surprise.
“The reasoning we had last night was because of the element of surprise as athletes who use EPO can take their last dose and it can be out of the system quickly,” he added.
He said that the Australian team had also told their athletes to declare whatever prescription medication they were taking for health reasons and to notify the testing authorities.
“We are checking everything from aspirin to toothpaste to make sure everything is okay,” Fricker said. “If people have medication for valid problems then we have written up those dispensations and told the authorities.”—Reuters
