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Last Day Dawns At Delhi Belly Games
Oct 8, 2010 - Craig Lord
Where to start in a day of more finals than you can shake a stick at. And shake a stick at such a schedule someone should, for all concerned. Don Blew of FINA's technical swimming committee huffed and puffed a bit after climbing the 70 steps to the media seats. Not just any steps, steps straight off a Disney set. The kind made by a sorcerer out to trick your senses: one 10cm, the next 33cm, then one of 15cm, then 59cm, and, oops... ah, that must be the 27.5cm one ... come on man, pick yourself up.
So far this week, I estimate that those journalists who trip and skip constantly between laptop and mixed zone on deck level have exceeded 10,000 steps. The days are long, punishing, not what they ought to be. Nor is the condition of the meet - but the show must go on.
Even when the swimmers can't focus because the heckling from the crowd is so loud when stillness is called for on the blocks. After Roland Schoeman and Simon Burnett were called back from what looked like a false start, the starter recognised that crowd noise had sparked the problem. Schoeman targeted one man in the stand who was being a particular nuisance, no crowd-control visible to stop the heckling. The South African said: "It's an absolute disgrace. There's a guy in the stands just shouting, shouting, shouting. Somebody like that needs to be ejected. It's unacceptable to be at a professional event like this and have people going on like monkeys. Someone like that doesn't deserve to be here."
The sprinter is labelled a rascist by the The Times of India this morning. That's nonsense of course, the fact that Schoeman is white and from a country with an apartheid past is totally irrelevant in the context of what happened. When I heard what Schoeman had said it never occurred to me that he intended a rascist slur. The context was "monkeying around" and behaving like a monkey in a tree, howling down from the branches. The image seemed pretty apt.
Sensitivities are rising here, however, as India becomes ever more aware of the international criticism of its event. Make that criticism of the Commonwealth Games federation's event, for it was that body that chose to bring the world here and was not on top of things even weeks into a years long process.
Back to the pool. Overall, Australia had a great day, each triumph a tale in its own right. Skippy, at 31, boxing with the boys and winning; Meagen Nay and an against-the-odds tale that tears at the heart-strings and makes her success all the more poignant; Miss Jones, the breaststroke ace of the decade past and heading into the decade ahead with a desire for more and a record that will take some surpassing (not easy a double, but try it three times over eight years...otherworldly); Seebohm on seven, Coutts on four golds, two shy of the records set by Graham Smith (CAN) in 1978 and matched by Ian Thorpe in 2002, with a silver behind Matt Welsh to boot in the 100m backstroke; Kukla, taking her chance at a tender age.
England had a great day, the three class-apart winners backed by seven other medals, a battling spirit and perspective helping some who had trained for more, expected more but got less as circumstance leapt ahead in the dance of life in Delhi and drew them, with many from other teams, to challenging places that have no place in world-class sport.
If the three Brits who roared loudest - Adlington (the first since Tracey Wickham in 1982 to win a medal in the 200, 400 and 800m free), Tancock and Goddard - were a class apart, three of Australia's six victories were snatched from the fingertips of English European champions who have fallen shy in what one of those defeated described as "a very challenging environment ... with a hell of a lot of things that we're not used to".
The closest call of the day left world champion Gemma Spofforth 0.03sec shy of the 50m backstroke title retained by Sophie Edington. Courtesy of an 11-event race schedule fit for the quirkiness of a Games with a Delhi difference, Spofforth had raced to fifth an hour before in a 200m backstroke final led until the last stroke by teammate and European champion Elizabeth Simmonds.
But Spofforth made no excuses. She was not looking to blame, neither others nor self. Her taper may have been out, maybe not. The calendar may have been too cluttered, may be not. She would go home, consider, work it through, get back on track, but the most important knowledge the Brit takes back to Florida with her is what she believes to be the root of her Delhi results: desire. "I just didn't want it enough and I have to go back and find out why and do something about it" on the road to Shanghai. No excuses given, not part of her lexicon.
She's not alone but some 'excuses' are actually necessary explanations. After falling 0.12sec shy of Yolane Kukla's 24.86 in the 50m freestyle, Halsall, had no doubt where the race would have gone had severe vomiting, diarrhoea and fever not intervened. "I wanted to win that but I know why I didn't," said Halsall, 50m butterfly champion on Monday who then took bronze in the 100m freestyle and missed the cut in the semi-finals of the 100m butterfly before collapsing on the poolside on Wednesday the wrong side of infection. If I had been well I would have won that. You can't choose when you're well or not and unfortunately I got ill two days ago. At least I know I can handle setbacks. I just didn't have as much power as Kukla. I am absolutely knackered."
Spofforth said she had never heard so many swimmers in the ready room talking about being homesick. Nearly time to go home. One day left and Jones is up for matching Ian Thorpe and Susie O'Neill's golden 10 titles. A little further to go to O'Neill's 10 gold and 5 silvers. Tomorrow brings seven more finals, the gap between Australia and England narrower than it was four years ago.
The women's 4x100m free success for the Dolphins took to six the number of Aussie gold medals today and that took the top of the medals table after five of six days to this:
England now has one gold shy of its Melbourne 2006 tally, with Australia three shy of its home total with a day to go. On total medals, England has already surpassed 2006, while Australia is 13 shy of its 2006 target. On a Britain level, the Brits combined are eight medals shy of their total medals tally in 2006. South Africa is on the up, Canada is struggling, Scotland sunk down from the dizzy heights of Melbourne 2006.
As chlorine counts are taken every few hours to reassure those who take to the waters, these Games took us back to Guayaquil and Cali and to Moscow world s/c in 2002, when the likes to Ashley Callus, felled by the break here, was felled by the dirty water there.
Places where excellence meets excrement. Never the twain should meet. Especially at a meet that some were banking on for future funding. Some difficult days ahead on the horizon beyond Delhi individuals but also for the very Games themselves.
One question already hun g heavy in the air before the events of the past month: does the Commonwealth Games, with cost estimated to be running at around $6 billion in a country where a $3 a day wage is paradise for many - and even in a country where the average income if over $30,000 a year but where purse-strings are being tightened - have a future?
