No Piddling Matter As Drunken Sailors Add Insult To Injury
Sydney Morning Herald
Wednesday September 2, 1998
The Australian Navy has apologised to the Commonwealth Games athletics team for rowdy and drunken behaviour by sailors which has led to the team switching hotels at its Darwin base.
More than 50 sailors on shore leave last weekend spent two nights drinking at the historic Hotel Darwin.
The noise and the behaviour of some sailors, who urinated in the pool, led to complaints from members of the team unable to sleep.
The hotel manager shut the bar on Sunday night to avoid another late session and called in two experts to clean the pool's water with chemicals.
Assistant team manager Carol Grant said a navy representative had arrived at the hotel to apologise for the sailors' behaviour. The hotel management had also gone out of its way to set up a home-away-from-home for the 90-member track and field contingent, which is using Darwin as an acclimatisation base to prepare for the Games in Kuala Lumpur.
Even though the sailors have left town, team management has decided to move to another hotel around the corner, which is a sponsor of the Commonwealth Games that start in just over a week.
Several athletes are reluctant to move as they feel settled and have started a petition to stay.
However, head coach Chris Wardlaw said the team would move on Friday to the other hotel.
"We had a problem with the sailors, last weekend was bad, it was the noise that tipped things over for us," Wardlaw said.
As the team leader, Wardlaw was also concerned by the number of injuries in the team and the effect they were already having on the team's expected medal tally.
While the injury count was no higher than in previous championships, the difference this time was that the injuries were felling Australia's gold medal prospects.
A predicted medal tally of 27 has been scaled back to 23 following the withdrawal of Cathy Freeman, who was expected to bring home three medals, and marathon hope Nicky Carroll, who left the team at the weekend because she did not want to risk her health by running in Kuala Lumpur's high heat and humidity.
World high jump bronze medallist Tim Forsyth is spending four hours a day on the physiotherapist's couch receiving treatment for a swollen and badly bruised ankle.
Forsyth was able to walk on the ankle yesterday for the first time since he suffered the injury 12 days ago and is refusing to rule himself out of contention for the Games.
Melinda Gainsford-Taylor was also feeling more upbeat about her Games prospects after being able to sprint at 80 per cent speed with little pain to a taped knee tendon injury.
Gainsford-Taylor, who is a medal chance in the 200m and 100m relay, said getting back into her spikes and being able to run, when last week she had struggled to walk, had also helped repair her battered confidence.
Wardlaw said that while the leading medal favourites were struggling, other developing athletes, like Victorian pole vaulter Rachel Dacy, were producing personal best performances in pre-Games competition. Dacy jumped 4.10m at a warm-up meeting in Darwin, a personal best by 10cm, which has lifted her into medal contention behind world record holder Emma George.
Wardlaw was also looking forward to today's decision on Nova Peris-Kneebone's court challenge for an individual 100m berth on the team over fellow sprinter Tania Van Heer.
Peris-Kneebone's appeal was heard yesterday in the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Sydney. Brian Roe, Athletics Australia's representative at the hearing, said there were no precedents as Peris-Kneebone was the first track and field athlete to take a selection issue to court.
© 1998 Sydney Morning Herald
