VIVE LA FRANCE ECHOES
Pouille downs Belgium’s Darcis in decider
LILLE family and my friends,” Pouille told French television.
It was a third victory as captain for Yannick Noah, who returned for a third stint in charge in 2015 after two spells as skipper in the 1990s. Noah, the last Frenchman to win a Grand Slam tournament at the 1983 French Open, was vindicated in his selection after surprisingly picking Richard Gasquet to partner Pierre-Hugues Herbert for Saturday’s crucial doubles victory.
Pouille broke Darcis, who had sent Belgium through to the final by winning the deciding rubber against Australia in September’s semi-final, at the first attempt to lay the foundation for a memorable triumph.
That proved enough to wrap up the first set, with three further breaks in the second firing Pouille and France to the brink of the title.
Darcis, the world number 76, was powerless to stop a rampant Pouille as the 23-year-old dismantled the Belgian in the third set — winning 25 of 34 points — to end France’s run of three straight finals defeats.
Belgium’s hopes of claiming a first title in the venerable competition rested with their in-form number one Goffin, who downed Tsonga 7-6 (7/5), 6-3, 6-2 after have begun deliberations on whether weightlifting should feature at the Paris 2024 Games.
“We accept that in the past the incidence of doping in weightlifting has been too high,” says Hungarian Tamas Ajan, president of the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) since 2000 and secretary general for 24 years before that. Ajan, 78, was speaking in Anaheim at the weekend, where the IWF adopted a hardline approach to doping at an executive board meeting.
Of the 49 weightlifting positives in the re-testing of samples from the 2008 and 2012 Olympics — more than any other sport — 43 were from nations formerly part of the Soviet Union.
Russia was banned from the Rio 2016 Games for repeated offences that “brought weightlifting into disrepute” and is also among the nine nations excluded from the world championships for having three or more of those 49 positives.
China is also banned from the world championships in Anaheim and, like Russia, has been accused of state-sponsored doping.
Under new rules approved by the IWF on Saturday, countries will face bans of up to four years “if they do not fulfil their anti-doping responsibilities”, which would keep them out of the Olympics.
There will be more out-of-competition testing, and a more detailed record of athletes’ coaching and support personnel.
The IWF’s anti-doping programme will be handed over to an Independent Testing Authority.
In June the IOC asked for an IWF report by December on how the governing body plans to deal with doping. Unless it is deemed “satisfactory” at an IOC meeting in Lausanne on Dec 5-6, weightlifting will lose its Olympic status after Tokyo 2020. Reuters