Sports Digest/Rowing: The fastest boat home in the Atlantic Rowing Race and the winners of the pairs class, James Cracknell and Ben Fogle, used large amounts of their ballast water and have been penalised in the final order by the organisers, reports Liam Gorman.
A boat with less ballast can travel faster.
The Irish/Canadian boat Christina, crewed by Paul Gleeson and Tori Holmes, finished 13th of the 26 entries and 10th of the 20 doubles.
The final race rankings released late last evening by the organisers record the double named C2, crewed by Chris Andrews and Clint Evans, as the overall winners, having crossed the Atlantic in just over 51 days without using any ballast water.
All Relative, crewed by four men from Devon in England, arrived in Antigua in under 40 days, but the crew used all 120 litres of ballast water.
All Relative was penalised by dropping two places, and Spirit of EDF Energy, crewed by Cracknell and Fogle, was penalised one place for using 60 litres of ballast. The two Englishmen, who made a television programme of their race, thus fall to fourth overall and second-placed double.
Tori Holmes said last night she was pleased with the high placing of Christina. Gleeson and Holmes used 10 litres of ballast water when their watermaker broke down, and were penalised by the addition of just over seven hours to their time.
Inquiry at Aussie base
Drugs: Suspicious material found at the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) have been sent to drug laboratories for examination, an Australian Sports Commission (ASC) spokesman said yesterday.
Australian Broadcasting Corp (ABC) radio reported as the 18th Commonwealth Games were being opened in Melbourne that syringes and vials with traces of an unidentified substance had been found by a cleaner at the AIS in Canberra on Tuesday.
The report said they were found in an athlete's room.
The ASC said something had been found but would not confirm the details of the ABC report.
The AIS is a world-renowned training base used by athletes from around the world.
