European Squad Set For USA Duel
Dec 7, 2011 - Craig Lord
Ten Hungarians, including triple silver medallist behind Michael Phelps in Beijing, Laszlo Cseh, are among 41 European swimmers set to do battle with a strong USA squad at the 2011 Mutual of Omaha Duel in the Pool in Atlanta, December 16-17. The competition will take place at the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center and will be broadcast on NBC.
No Phelps among the Americans but Ryan Lochte will step up for the Stars and Stripes, as will the other swimmer of the year, Missy Franklin. For Europe, Jeanette Ottesen, Denmark, and Aliaksandra Herasimenia, Belarus, find themselves on the same team a few months after becoming the first women to share the 100m freestyle world crown in Shanghai.
The European All-Star Team’s overall head coach for the Duel in the Pool will be American Dennis Pursley, head coach to Britain. Personal coaches of several swimmers will also be in tow, while several Europeans will travel to Atlanta in the wake of the European s/c Championships in Poland for four days from tomorrow.
The European All-Stars team:
Women
Men:
* and **:
* - Herasimenia tested positive for norandrosterone and Noretiocholanolone, metabolites of nandrolone, in out-of-competition testing on March 26, 2003 in Minsk, Belarus. She served a two-year suspension
** - Jukic refused an anti-doping test back in May on grounds that he felt that the hygiene standards prevailing in the pool venue when anti-doping agents called on him fell short of what he expected. An inquiry into the NADA (national agency) case against him found that he had broken two anti-doping rules: he did not stick to the whereabouts details he had provided and did not "assist" with execution of a test. A five-month process, however, ended in no sanction being handed down. "The accused was lucky," concluded NADA lawyer Gernot Schaar.
Jukic cited the case of Anastasia Chaun, the Russian breaststroke swimmer, who after a random blood test in the changing rooms at the world titles in Shanghai back in July complained of an inflamed vein caused, she said, by infection resulting from the blood test.
The Jukic case raises serious problems in the fight against doping, as Anselm Oehlschlägel, of the DSV anti-doping unit, noted, with a nod to potential challenges now from German swimmers who may have had their eye on the Austrian case: "If a swimmer refuses a test because of nominally poor sanitary conditions, I think that he does so on what legally is very thin ice."