Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/714702
48 maltatoday, SUNDAY, 14 AUGUST 2016 Sport OLYMPICS Luke Bezzina eliminated after placing 12th in the men's 100m preliminary round Luke Bezzina finished the race in 11.04 seconds to place 12th in men's 100m preliminary round WARREN ZAMMIT THE Maltese athlete ran in heat 2 together with 6 other athletes, and lost qualification after plac- ing slightly behind Siueni Fili- mone from Tonga who finished the race in 10.76 seconds. When compared with ath- letes from all heats, the 21 year old placed 12th after finishing 0.12 seconds behind Mohamed Fahkri Ismail from Brunei, who took the last qualif ying spot af- ter achieving a result of 10.92 seconds. Hasan Saaid from the Maldives placed first with a result of 10.43 seconds. Rodman Teltull from Palau placed second with 10.53 seconds, while Riste Pandev from Macedonia finished third. Luke Bezzina was replacing Kevin Moore after the latter tested positive for a doping test. Luke Bezzina From green pool to missing pontoon, Rio's problems won't go away OLYMPICS organisers battled an array of persistent problems as the Games entered its second week on Saturday, from a lurid green diving pool to competitors taken to the wrong venue and a long-distance swimming pontoon swept away by the waves. The refusal of the Olympic diving pool to return to a more appealing blue hue has baffled technicians and competitors alike after it was pumped full of chemicals since turning a cloudy green colour on Tuesday. World swimming governing body FINA blamed the colour change on a failure by the organisers to suffi- ciently treat the water after tanks at the venue ran out of pool chemicals. The organisers added more chlo- rine, which kills algae and helps to keep water blue, in the hope of re- peating some success they had had with the adjacent waterpolo pool, which had also turned green. The diving pool, though, did not re- spond while waterpolo players com- plained of stinging eyes. Rio 2016 spokesman Mario An- drada said organisers were stepping up their efforts on Saturday. There remains a week of competition in diving events, which wrap up on the final Saturday of the Games. "We are moving to a more radi- cal approach with the water. Part of the water in the main pool will be replaced later in the evening," An- drada, who had originally said the problem would be fixed on Wednes- day, told a news conference. He also said a group of swimmers had risked missing their races after a bus driver meant to have taken them to the Olympic pool misheard the acronym used for the site and drove them instead to the athletics stadium on the other side of town. FINA made changes to the sched- ule so the swimmers could return to the site in time to warm up and compete and Andrada said bus drivers had been instructed to use the full name of the site as well as the acronym to avoid further confu- sion. Organisers' decision to spread the Games across a number of sites around Rio de Janeiro - one of Bra- zil's largest cities with more than 12 million people in the wider metro- politan area - has been criticised by some competitors and fans for the long distances and hours spent in traffic. "We cannot confine the Olympic spirit and the transformation that the Olympics bring to a city to a sin- gle area and when we prepared the Games we decided to spread ... the benefits around the city," Andrada said. "We need to make sure the trans- portation works. We need to make sure people can access the Olympic stadium in a quick and easy man- ner," he said. He added that there was an "un- precedented" last-minute change to the schedule of the women's swim- ming competition on Friday, made in consultation with FINA, broad- casters and technical experts. But he did not give a reason, and it was unclear if this was connected to the transport mix-up. Organisers said they had a standby pontoon for the 10-km marathon swimming off Copacabana beach after the original pontoon was swept away. The men's and women's races are due to take place on Mon- day and Tuesday. "We have a second platform to re- place the first one and if the second platform has the same problem then we will use another system, that is being prepared now," Andrada said. The water in the Olympic diving pool appeared to turn a bright green hue on Tuesday, causing puzzlement among divers and audiences Blocked Klishina makes CAS appeal RUSSIA'S only ath- letics competitor at the Rio Olympics has been blocked from taking part in the Games by the sport's world govern- ing body the Inter- national Association of Athletics Federa- tions. A m e r i c a n - b a s e d long jumper Darya Klishina was the only Russian athlete to come through the IAAF's individual vetting process fol- lowing the publi- cation of a World Anti-Doping Agen- cy-funded report into state-run doping in the world's largest country. But in a dramatic late development, the IAAF reversed its decision on Friday, just four days before the 25-year-old was due to compete, although she has immediately lodged an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Rio. Klishina, a two-time European indoor champion and gold med- allist at the 2013 World Student Games in Kazan, has been based in Florida since signing a con- tract with global sports agency IMG in 2011. The IAAF banned Russia's athletics federation last No- vember after an earlier WADA- sponsored investigation revealed widespread cheating in the coun- try's track and field programme. That ban was upheld in June and 67 of Russia's intended 68-strong team for Rio were de- clared ineligible by the IAAF last month. Klishina was the sole exception, as she lives and trains abroad, and was drug-tested there by what the IAAF referred to as a "credible anti-doping agency". But Russian media is now re- porting she has been linked to the state-run doping programme that was uncovered by the sec- ond WADA investigation, led by Canadian law professor Richard McLaren. His explosive report revealed that hundreds of positive tests by Russian athletes, from nearly all Olympic and Paralympics sports, were covered up by the Moscow anti-doping laboratory between 2011-15 at the behest of the Rus- sian sports ministry. Klishina, who also has a bud- ding modelling career, has kept a low profile in recent weeks after she received personal abuse via social media from Russians who considered her to be a "traitor" for going to the Games. An IAAF spokesman said: "We have withdrawn Darya Klishina's exceptional eligibility status be- cause of new information which we have shared with Klishina. "She has now decided to chal- lenge our decision at the Court of Arbitration for Sport." A spokesman for CAS con- firmed that Klishina's Russian lawyers had started the appeal process but said he could not provide any further details. Darya Klishina