Popov prefers to go alone, dumps coach

“I’ve done it before so I guess it isn’t bad,” he said on Monday. “But on the other hand you would like your coach there with you just to help you out a bit.”

Popov’s stroke is regarded as technically perfect and the toughest physical stage of his training programme has just finished.

Australian Dawn Fraser was the first swimmer to claim a hat-trick of gold medals when she won the 100m freestyle at Melbourne (1956), Rome (1960) and Tokyo (1964).

The 28-year-old Russian and Australia’s 1500m champion Kieren Perkins can match her feat at the Sydney Games but Popov will get the first opportunity to succeed.

Both of his events are to be held before Perkins’ only race on the last day of the swimming competition.

“I’m not trying to chase it,” Popov said of another Olympic victory. “The thing is that I’ve done it before and I can’t lose anything. But the others are aiming at it and I just have to stop them. This is what my goal is.”

Popov will start favourite in the sprints while Perkins faces a tough task in getting past fellow Australian Grant Hackett, the World champion, in the 1500m.

Blind man wins website battle

SYDNEY: Sydney Olympic organisers were ordered to make changes to their website before the Olympics start after a blind man won his case before a Human Rights Commission.

Bruce Maguire lodged the complaint with the Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission because large parts of the site were inaccessible to blind people.

The Commission ordered SOCOG to make changes to its website (olympic.org) before September 15 after it found the organising committee had breached the Disability Discrimination Act.

Maguire, who was previously successful in forcing SOCOG to print its original ticket order book in Braille, said afterwards: “When I lodged my complaint I wanted to fully participate in that feeling of electricity and feeling of excitement that surrounds the Olympics.”

Simon Moran of the Public Interest Advocacy Centre, who acted for Maguire, said the changes would cost SOCOG between 30,000 and 40,000 Australian dollars to implement.

China powerhouse aims higher

BEIJING: Asian powerhouse China on Monday unveiled the final list of athletes for the Sydney Olympics next month and expressed hope to win over 20 gold medals.

A total of 311 athletes, including 107 men and 204 women will vie for top honours in 25 of the 27 Olympic disciplines, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

China had romped home with 16 gold medals and fourth overall ranking in the Atlanta Games in 1996.

“We have two main goals for the Sydney Olympics. One is to surpass the medal haul from the Atlanta Games four years ago, and the other is to make success not only from the athletic but from the spiritual perspective,” President of the Chinese Olympic Committee, Yuan Weimin, said.

In order to achieve “spiritual success”, which means to ensure a clean Olympics for the Chinese athletes, China has carried out 2,268 doping tests on the athletes this year. Over 300 of which were blood tests and 53.6 per cent tests were done out of competition, he said.

Weightlifting, gymnastics, table tennis, shooting, badminton, diving and judo are the disciplines which could see China notching medals.

Hotel workers push for extra pay

SYDNEY: Employees of a luxury hotel that will house senior International Olympic Committee (IOC) officials during the Games here next month protested on Monday against its refusal to pay them an Olympic bonus.

About 50 Regent Hotel staff demanding a 550 Australian dollar (320 US dollar) bonus for working during the Olympics waved placards and chanted outside the hotel’s main entrance during talks to end the dispute.

Union officials refused to rule out the possibility of hotel workers walking off the job during the Games.

As the dispute escalated, the officials accused the hotel of importing cheap labour from Indonesia for the Games.

Malaysian hopes may crash

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian badminton fans have seen their hopes smashed so often, it’s a wonder they haven’t hung up their rackets for good.

Indonesia has denied them the Thomas Cup, badminton’s most coveted trophy, four times in the past decade. Denmark and China broke their hearts during the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, while South Korea and India have repeatedly proven formidable.

Malaysia’s shuttlers, ranked among the World’s best, have another shot at Olympic glory in Sydney. But their road, paved with bitterness and accusations of betrayal, might not lead to gold.

Signs of trouble sprouted in early August when veteran doubles player Yap Kim Hock shocked the local badminton fraternity by pulling out of the National squad. Yap, who suffered a calf injury in July, reversed his decision several days later, but the damage was done.

“I feel betrayed,” said Cheah Soon Kit, Yap’s long time partner. “It is not fair to come this far and have your partner turn his back on you.”

The duo is often praised for winning silver for their badminton-adoring Nation in Atlanta. But Malaysia’s best-ever Olympic result disappointed many because Cheah and Yap were ranked No 1 in the World at the time.

With the Cheah-Yap partnership on shaky ground, the country might see their doubles players return empty-handed from Sydney.

IOC to select 2008 finalists

LAUSANNE: The race for the 2008 Summer Olympics is expected to be contested by a field of four or five cities from Asia, Europe and North America.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) executive board is meeting on Monday to trim the preliminary list of 10 applicants to a handful of finalists.

Front-runner Beijing and Paris are virtually certain to make the shortlist, with Osaka and Toronto also likely to be selected. If the IOC opts for five cities, Istanbul — making its third consecutive bid — could get through.

The other hopefuls are Malaysia, Egypt, Thailand, Cuba and Spain.

The cutoff comes 10 1/2 months before the full IOC selects the 2008 host city at its session in Moscow in July, 2001.

While the IOC has not specified how many 2008 bidders will be accepted, the number is not expected to exceed five.

The 11-member executive board will seek to make the selection by consensus. If that fails, a vote will be taken.

In the event of a vote, those members from countries with applicant cities will abstain. That would mean IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch (Spain), Dick Pound (Canada), Chiharu Igaya (Japan) and He Zhenliang (China).

The new “candidate acceptance procedure” was introduced as part of the reforms adopted by the IOC last year following the bribery scandal centering on Salt Lake City’s winning bid for the 2002 Winter Games.

Susanthika carries Sri Lan burden

COLOMBO: A female sprinter who became embroiled in controversy over alleged sexual advances and other harassment by powerful politicians is Sri Lanka’s only hope to win a medal at the Sydney Olympics.

“I know I can do it — provided I am left in peace,” said Susanthika Jayasinghe, who left Sri Lanka two years ago at the height of the furore.

The 200-metre silver medalist at the World Track Championships in Athens, Jayasinghe is part of a 14-member Sri Lankan team that will take part in track and field, swimming and shooting.

Jayasinghe, 25, has tested positive twice for performance-enhancing drugs. But she blamed medication that she often has taken to control her menstrual cycle which can leave traces of organic compounds, also found in Nandralone-19, a performance-enhancing drug. A competition ban against her was lifted after medical evidence proved her correct.

She hit the headlines two years ago after she pulled out of the Asian Games in Bangkok, pleading injury. After she returned from Bangkok, the Island newspaper in Colombo quoted her as saying she was being hassled by local sports officials and couldn’t concentrate on training.