Our swimming team fell victim to poison plot in Scotland, claim Russians
Extraordinary accusation over chlorine in championship pool
IT may be a far cry from a Novichok nerve agent attack, but Russia has accused European Championship organisers of ‘poisoning’ their synchronised swimmers.
Team chiefs this week claimed the athletes were subjected to unacceptably high levels of chlorine in the pool at Glasgow’s Scotstoun Leisure Centre.
Russian head coach Tatyana Pokrovskaya claimed her synchronised swimmers competed ‘blind’ after concentrated levels of the chemical left her girls’ ‘eyesight ruined’.
The athletes, who took part in the team event on Saturday, claimed gold, with their routine placing them well clear of secondplaced Ukraine and Italy in third.
But Miss Pokrovskaya told Russia’s state news agency Tass the event was an ordeal for the sportswomen. She said: ‘It’s some sort of nightmare. The girls’ eyesight is ruined. They did half of their routine blind. Is this any way to treat sportswomen?’
Gold-medal swimmer Maria Shurochkina then said at the weekend: ‘Do you see me? I have these red eyes. The conditions are awful because of the chlorine.’
Her team mate, Polina Komar, said: ‘It was too much chlorine. Much more than yesterday. I could not see the team, all I could see was white.’
However, Russia’s largest sport website, Championat, went one step further and claimed organisers had ‘poisoned’ the athletes, despite an investigation finding chlorine levels were within acceptable limits.
The popular sport news site ran the headline ‘Do you poison? The British used chlorine against Russian athletes’.
The report went on: ‘It seems that no major sports tournament can go without scandal in the modern world. Already by the second day at the European Championships 2018, the situation has escalated.
‘Russian synchronised swimmers were attempted to be eliminated from the competition. And in this case, this phrase must be understood literally.
‘As it turned out, the organisers of the competitions in Glasgow lavishly diluted the water in the pool with bleach, because of which the Russian girls have problems with their sight.
‘According to Pokrovskaya, after the next training session, two girls could not see anything at all.’
Miss Pokrovskaya told the website: ‘This is a purely political decision. We will give the medal to another country, or else they will always say to us, “Here, again the Russians, always the Russians”.
‘Some even say, “Do you know what surprise will be in these competitions? The Russians will be the first again”.’
However, organisers defended the pool chlorine levels.
A Glasgow 2018 spokesman said: ‘Pool water quality is, and will continue to be, monitored closely throughout the competition. No results outwith accepted parameters have been recorded.’
The Russian Synchronised Swimming Federation was asked to clarify Miss Pokrovskaya’s comments, but did not elaborate. More than 3,000 athletes are competing over ten days across 12 sports, including track cycling, swimming and gymnastics.
The event is the largest to be held in Scotland since the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
Although relatively minor, the incident is bound to further sour relations between the UK and Russia following the poisoning attack in Salisbury this year. Russia is suspected of carrying out the Novichok nerve agent attack on former agent Sergei Skripal, 67, and his daughter Yulia, 33, in the town on March 4.
They have since been released from hospital and taken to a secret location.
A bottle containing the substance was found last month at the home of Charlie Rowley, 45, who was poisoned along with his partner, Dawn Sturgess, 44, who later died.
Prosecutors were yesterday preparing to request the extradition of two Russians suspected of carrying out the attack.
‘I could not see the team, all I could see was white’