Swimming's governing body, FINA, took its frustrations out on the world's media in Sydney yesterday, ordering security guards to expel journalists asking questions on further developments over the Chinese doping scandal.
FINA secretary Gunnar Werner refused to talk with the press after Australian police said they had found some unidentified pills as well as 27 empty vials in a motel room that housed part of the Chinese team at the recent World Championships in Perth.
When asked by one reporter why FINA would not discuss the biggest crisis in the sport's history, Werner ordered a group of security men to remove all journalists from the area where he and other FINA members were sitting at a World Cup short-course meeting in Sydney.
Later, when the swim meeting finished, Werner was whisked away by police through an emergency exit to his waiting car, again without speaking to the press.
In his absence, a number of swimmers and coaches said they were dissatisfied with FINA's response.
"The swimming world is right behind the anti-drugs stance," Australia's multi-Olympic and world champion Kieren Perkins said.
"It just seems that the organisers aren't that keen on putting their foot down and they are the ones we have to hound right at the moment."
Yesterday's incident was the latest in a series of clashes between FINA and the media over the past two weeks.
FINA was strongly criticised after it took more than two days to respond to the news that customs officials had caught Chinese swimmer Yuan Yuan and her coach Zhou Zhewen smuggling human growth hormones into Australia.
When asked at the time why FINA had been so slow in responding, Werner's response was to cancel FINA's scheduled daily press conferences for the remainder of the World Championships.
The following week, FINA announced that four Chinese swimmers had failed out-of-competition doping tests. Again, the sport's governing body refused to comment.
On the final day of the championships last Sunday, more than 20 news organisations signed a petition complaining about FINA's reluctance to discuss the issue and demanding answers to 20 basic questions.
Later that night, the press were banned from attending the post-championships party even though they had originally been told they could go.
Concerning the latest haul of pills and substances, a Western Australian police spokeswoman said 27 vials containing traces of an unidentified substance were found on Sunday in a communal toilet block in the motel where the Chinese and three other national teams stayed.
A police sweep of the Beatty Lodge motel after the last of the Chinese had departed also discovered a quantity of tablets and a plastic container of liquid in the Chinese quarters.
Superintendent David Parkinson said: "In four rooms, they found a quantity of pills, a small glass bottle containing a clear fluid and a little container containing several little boxes of what can probably best be described as little round ball-type objects." An investigation is under way into the discovery of the drugs, which have not yet been analysed. The spokeswoman was unable to confirm reports that the vials had Chinese writing on them. Other teams staying at the motel were from Tahiti, Azerbaijan and Slovenia.
