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22 THE Briton was in the Olympic medal mix at the end of the 10-kilo- metres race, but was denied in the frantic finale. Initially he was in a photo fin- ish for third, behind winner Ferry Weertman of Holland, before being demoted to fifth and then disquali- fied altogether for a second caution from race officials. The 23-year-old Loughborough swimmer, who was fifth in last year's World Championships, said: "It was an absolute joke, the whole thing from start to finish. "You've got the best guys in the world out here, who have trained for four years, put a lot of hard work into this. "This is the pinnacle of our sport and it's ruined by a couple of judges, who want to stick their nose in, just because they want something to do. "They want to be seen to be like they're doing something. Just let the guys race. It's an absolute outrage. "There were yellow cards left, right and centre. The first yellow card that I got there was nobody either side of me. "I couldn't physically have touched anybody, even if I had had six-foot long arms. And he gives me a yellow card. "I just laughed at the guy as I was swimming. I looked at him and shook my head. He just nodded his head and showed me the yellow card. "They just want to be seen to be doing something. This is unbeliev- able, considering how much work these guys put in, for four years, in- cluding myself. "And it all gets thrown away just by some judge who wants to stick his oar in." Open water swimming can be rough, featuring tugs of limbs, clashes of elbows and the occasional punch. Weertman won gold in one hour 52 minutes 59.8 seconds. Greece's Spiros Gianniotis was second in the same time and Burnell was one of three swimmers finishing in 1hr 53mins 02secs. But France's Mac-Antoine Olivier was awarded bronze ahead of Zu Lijun of China and Burnell was left with nothing. Defending Olympic champion Oussama Mellouli of Tunisia was 12th, 6.3secs behind, despite Burnell alleging he impeded his progress. Burnell described himself as "furi- ous". He added: "The guy that should've got disqualified is the guy that stopped me, Oussama Mellouli, he grabbed my leg. "He was holding my leg not for one, two, three, but for four or five strokes, so I had to turn round to try to get him off. What am I meant to do? "In that line, I'm thinking 'this is brilliant, this is perfect for me'. "We're all at top speed and I'm stopped dead. I'm one of the fastest finishers in there. "He was yellow carded for that, which stopped me winning, but I was disqualified for trying to get him off to try to win the race. "Explain that to me. Absolutely outrageous." Mellouli failed a drugs test early in his career and Burnell alluded to that when expressing his frustra- tion. "We know the guy's past and then he goes and screws us over," the Briton added. "That's in the past and it is what it is. What I'm p***** off about is him grabbing my leg and preventing me from winning." Burnell suggested a protest would be futile. He said: "There's an appeals pro- cess, but it will mean nothing. It's never changed anything in the sport. "Imagine this happens in the (football) World Cup final and the referee gives the goalie a yellow card for standing there. That is how ri- diculous this is. "A referee should not be there unless there is something clearly wrong. "They always want to be seen to be doing something. On the Olym- pic stage, what do they want to do? Do they want to get on telly to show a yellow card? To show their family back home that they're doing some- thing? It's absolutely ridiculous." maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 17 AUGUST 2016 Sport OLYMPICS Russian Doping Whistleblower Stepanova Fears for her Life THE Russian runner who helped expose a system of state-backed doping in her country says she fears for her life and has been forced to move after hackers tried to find her location. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) said on Saturday Yulia Stepanova's online doping man- agement account had been ille- gally accessed. The doping scan- dal she lifted the lid on has rocked sport and cost over 100 Russians their place at the Rio Games. Stepanova has been in hid- ing in the United States with her husband Vitaly, a former Russian anti-doping official, after giving evidence that the Russian govern- ment for years facilitated wide- spread cheating across nearly all Olympic sports. Speaking to journalists on a vid- eo conference call just days before the 800 metres final in Rio, which she has been barred from running in following the suspension of Russian track-and-field from in- ternational competition, Stepano- va said she had moved her family to another location after the hack. "The only reason somebody would hack an ADAMS account is to find out your exact location," she said. "We decided it was safer to relocate. "If something happens to us then you should know that it is not an accident." All athletes have to enter their details into WADA's Anti-Doping Administration and Management System (ADAMS) and register a time and location each day where they can be reached by doping testers for an out-of-competition test. Stepanova and her husband have repeatedly raised concerns about their safety in light of the doping scandal they helped ignite and criticised the International Olym- pic Committee for not doing more to support whistleblowers. Vitaly Stepanov said he did not know who had hacked his wife's account but said the couple were being watched by Russian author- ities. After she initially fled Russia for Germany, Russian sports officials said they did not know about any threats against Stepanova or her husband that could have com- pelled them to seek refuge abroad. Stepanova said attending the Games - she and her husband de- clined an invitation from Olym- pic bosses to visit as spectators - would have left her particularly vulnerable. General worries about safety and violent crime have cast a pall over the Rio Olympics. Most re- cently, U.S. gold medallist swim- mer Ryan Lochte was robbed at gunpoint by men posing as police officers. "Watching the Olympic Games and reading the news about what is happening there, on some level I'm glad that I didn't go," she said. "If someone wanted to hurt us, it would be very easy to do it there." Russian doping whistleblower Yuliya Stepanova British marathon swimmer Jack Burnell angered by 'ridiculous' disqualification Britain's Jack Burnell was left fuming and perplexed after being disqualified from the men's open water swimming when in medal contention Jack Burnell was given two warnings by race officials