SPORTS SATURDAY, APRIL 23, 2016 Four-time Olympian Azevedo believes Rio up to challenge LOS ANGELES: Two seasons playing in the build-up to the Games. “One of ended up really loving the World point in the history of Brazil,” he said. in Brazil have convinced US water polo the great things about the Brazilians is Cup.” Brazil’s Olympic preparations Economic and political turmoil aren’t team veteran Tony Azevedo that ordi- they really love throwing a good par- have been overshadowed by potential the only challenges for Games organ- nary Brazilians are the key to what he ty,” Azevedo told reporters on a con- impeachment proceedings against izers, who also face continuing con- is sure will be a successful Rio de ference call organized by the US President Dilma Rousseff, who is cerns over the Zika virus and the Janeiro Olympics in August. Olympic Committee on Thursday-the accused of falsifying budget figures. water quality in the Rio bay that will “As far as living there, it has been a same day that the Olympic flame was Rousseff denies acting improperly, but host yachting and open-water swim- great opportunity to really see what’s lit in a temple at Ancient Olympia to the case has been sent to the Senate ming. “This is my fifth Olympics and I going on and what the actual situa- begin its journey to Rio. as the country grapples with a crip- remember going into Athens there tion is like,” said Azevedo, who was The Olympic cauldron will be lit pling recession and a corruption scan- were so many things that were going born in Rio but moved as a child with during the opening ceremony on dal centered on state oil company to go wrong, it was going to be a ter- his family to the United States. August 5. “I was down there for the Petrobras. rible Olympics and in the end it really A veteran of four previous Games, World Cup and there was a lot of spec- Azevedo said he believes that the worked out to be a great one,” Azevedo has been playing for SESI ulation then as to how possibly this is upheaval could be a sign of needed Azevedo said. “I have a feeling that Water Polo in Sao Paulo in a pro going to be a failure. All the stadiums change. “I think this Olympics could the Brazilians are going to do the league established to boost the sport were having problems, but people go down for them as a changing same.” —AFP Adams given chance to secure Olympic hat-trick in Rio AUCKLAND: Shot putter Valerie Adams will have the oppor- tunity to become the first woman to win the event at three successive Olympics after she was named in New Zealand’s initial athletics squad for this year’s Rio de Janeiro Games yes- terday. Adams, whose injury-hit 2015 season was ended by knee surgery, won gold in Beijing and London and should challenge for the title again in Rio, as she hopes to move clear of Tamara Press of the former Soviet Union as the only women to have won the title twice. The 31-year-old, who was awarded the gold in London after Belarus’ Nadzeya Ostapchuk tested positive for perform- ance enhancing drugs, took bronze at the world indoor cham- pionships in Portland last month. Nick Willis, the Beijing 1,500 metres silver medallist, joins Adams at their fourth Games. Willis also won bronze in Portland. World indoor shot put champion Tom Walsh, who threw a season-leading 21.78 to clinch gold in Oregon and has three of the five leading throws outdoors this year, has also been named to compete at his first Olympics. The 24-year-old Walsh, who finished fourth at last year’s world championships in Beijing, will be joined in the event by BEIJING: A woman walks into the building of the China Anti-Doping Agency in Beijing yesterday. China’s national anti- two-time world junior champion Jacko Gill, who was ninth in doping laboratory failed to identify two positive samples in a test by the World Anti-Doping Agency last year, it admit- Portland. ted after WADA suspended its accreditation just months before the Olympics. —AFP “Our team is an exciting mix of multi-medal winning Olympic and world champions and new emerging talent selected for their first Games, across a broad spread of event disciplines from shot put to 10,000m,” Athletics New Zealand WADA suspends Beijing chief executive Linda Hamersley said. “Since the London Olympics in 2012, we have seen tremen- dous growth in the depth and breadth of our new athletic tal- anti-doping laboratory ent which we look to continue through to Tokyo (in 2020) and 2024.” A further selection announcement is to be made in July. Initial squad: Valerie Adams (shot put), Stuart MONTREAL: The World Anti-Doping appeal the suspension and can also WADA-accredited facility in China, Farquhar(javelin), Jacko Gill (shot put), Nikki Hamblin Agency suspended the accreditation of apply for reinstatement if it takes five according to WADA’s website. (1,500m), Eliza McCartney (pole vault), Angie Petty (800m), China’s national anti-doping laboratory unspecified “remedial steps” and Its suspension, less than four months Quentin Rew (50km walk), Zane Robertson (10,000m), Tom on Thursday, just months out from the addresses its “non-conformities”. from the start of the Olympics in Rio, Walsh (shot put), Nick Willis (1,500m). — Reuters Olympics and weeks after a drugs con- No one from the Chinese Anti- comes after three Chinese swimmers troversy in Chinese swimming. Doping Agency (CHINADA) was avail- tested positive for clenbuterol, with two, The suspension for a maximum of able to comment when contacted by neither of them well known, let off with four months means China’s National AFP on Friday. An official at China’s warnings in late March. China’s national Anti-Doping Laboratory is barred from General Administration of Sport said it swimming body also said three other carrying out WADA-related tests such as also had no reaction yet. The battle unidentified swimmers had tested posi- blood and urine analysis. against doping has intensified in the tive for a banned diuretic and were “During the period of suspension, run-up to Rio, with Kenya threatened awaiting hearings. That announcement samples are required to be transported with being barred from the Games after came after whistleblowers told Britain’s securely to another WADA-accredited a string of failed tests. Russia is also The Times newspaper that five positive laboratory,” Montreal-based WADA said fighting to overturn a ban on its track drug tests had been covered up by in a statement. and field athletes after a WADA inde- Chinese authorities. China has become a leading Olympic pendent commission found evidence of Chinese sport has periodically been power, topping the medals table at the state-sponsored doping. Last Friday, embroiled in controversy, with coach Beijing 2008 Games and finishing sec- WADA revoked the accreditation of the Ma Junren notoriously attributing the ond behind the United States in 2004 Moscow anti-doping laboratory, which stunning performances of his women and 2012. was suspended in November after an distance runners in the 1990s to turtle PARIS: Member of the French national sailing team com- China was also second in the swim- independent investigation found its blood. Chinese swimming has an espe- peting in the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, bottom row (L to ming events at London 2012 after dis- director had ordered nearly 1,500 sam- cially chequered history, with a rash of R) Jonathan Lobert, Mathilde de Kerangat, Jean-Baptiste tance specialist Sun Yang-who secretly ples to be destroyed. cases throughout the 1990s. Seven Bernaz, Charlene Picon, Pierre Le Coq, Camille Lecointre et served a brief drugs ban in 2014 — and Chinese swimmers tested positive for Helene Defrance take part in a press conference in Paris medley sensation Ye Shiwen led them to CHEQUERED HISTORY steroids at the 1994 Asian Games in on Thursday. —AFP five gold medals. WADA said China can The Beijing laboratory is the only Hiroshima.—AFP.