Surf up for successful Oly debut in Tokyo
Skelton announces retirement
LONDON, April 6, (RTRS): The International Surfing Association is confident the sport’s Olympic debut at the Tokyo 2020 Games will be a success despite some minor concerns over conditions, ISA President Fernando Aguerre said on Wednesday.
The surfing competition will take place from July 24 and Aug 9 at Ichinomiya’s Tsurigasaki Beach instead of on artificial waves, leading to the fears that waves in the summer months may not be sufficient for the competition.
Aguerre, however, believes advanced weather forecasts will help the ISA organise the competition efficiently.
“We have a 10-year history of the place — the surfing direction, size, swirl, wind, everything, so we’re not surprised about how it’s going to be,” Aguerre told insidethegames.biz, a sports website focused on the Olympic Movement.
“The technology right now allows us 72 hours of forecast ahead of time of how the waves are going to be. We need two eight-hour days to run the competition so I think it’s very, very positive.”
Surfing is one of five new sports approved by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for Tokyo, along with skateboarding, karate, sports climbing and baseball/softball, which returns after being dropped following the 2008 Olympics.
Britain’s Olympic show jumping double gold medallist Nick Skelton announced his retirement at the age of 59 on Wednesday, saying he was not getting any younger and it was good to go out at the top.
Skelton, a team gold medallist in London in 2012, won his first individual Olympic title with Big Star at last year’s Rio Games.
The oldest British gold medallist since 1908, he competed in seven Olympics despite being advised by his surgeon to give up riding after a fall in 2000 snapped vertebra in his neck in two places.
“It has come to a point, after months of thought and consideration, that myself and my partner Big Star have decided to retire from competition,” Skelton said on his website (www.nickskelton.com).
“We feel that Big Star has done everything that a rider could ask and it is time for him to relax and enjoy his stallion duties. As for myself, I have always stated that when Big Star was finished I would be as well.
“This sport has given me more than I could have ever hoped over the past 43 years and it is such a difficult decision to make, but I’m not getting any younger and it is nice for the two of us to end on the highest note possible.”
Skelton and Big Star’s farewell appearance will be at the Royal Windsor Horse Show on May 14.
The establishment of the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) is a “momentous” move for athletics and could form a template for other sports to follow, inaugural chairman David Howman said on Thursday.
The AIU will oversee the battle against doping, bribery and corruption in a sport that has been battered by scandal over the last two years and is struggling to reverse a downturn in popularity.
New Zealander Howman, a former World AntiDoping Agency (WADA) chief, was named the AIU’s chairman by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) on Wednesday and said the remit of the body was groundbreaking.
“It’s the first international federation to do it and the first to lead the charge for integrity, which I find to be momentous,” the Wellington-based lawyer told Reuters on Thursday. “It’s a pretty big challenge.” The AIU is a plank in the sweeping reforms introduced by IAAF president Sebastian Coe after a series of scandals, including a corruption probe by French authorities into high-ranking officials such as his predecessor Lamine Diack.
A doping scandal involving Russian
Skelton
athletes, which saw the country’s track and field team banned from last year’s Rio Olympics, has also cast a long and enduring shadow over the sport.
Having come back from two years ruined by injuries, the tears flowed freely for Sally Pearson after the former Olympic 100m hurdles champion booked her ticket to the world championships.
The 30-year-old Australian went to the national trials in Sydney on Sunday nauseous with nerves and on an empty stomach.
She took the starting blocks without any last-minute calming words from a mentor, having decided months before to coach her own way back to the top.
Within 12.74 seconds the agony was over, as the blonde-haired Gold Coast athlete crossed the line in her heat in a time quick enough to qualify for London.
She then posted a wind-assisted 12.53 in the final to capture an eighth national title in the 100m hurdles before finally losing out to her emotions.
“For sure, there was relief,” Pearson told Reuters in an interview on Thursday.
“I’d been out for two years. I missed the national championships last year, missed the Olympics and the worlds and the world indoor championships, so I haven’t been at the top level.
“And for me to come out on Sunday and produce results like that is reassuring and exciting. It’s also a big confidence boost.”