Racing Victoria's controversial stand-alone experiment "to run premium Saturday meetings with a 30-minute gap between races is officially over." However, Victoria and New South Wales "have reached a deal to continue the 30-minute trials at midweek metropolitan meetings."
Since the trials were introduced -- at the past two Saturday meetings in Melbourne -- "debate has raged about the 30-minute gaps, however peace talks between the two most powerful racing states have managed to galvanise them and bring unity to the negotiating table" (SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, 2/16). ... Sports scientist Stephen Dank told a Sydney court that he instructed a National Rugby League player who later died of cancer that "injecting peptides was safe."
He also said that "he was administering the supplements to improve players' sleep, not their performances."
Dank made the comments on Tuesday at the New South Wales Supreme Court where he "is suing Nationwide News, publisher of Sydney tabloid The Daily Telegraph, over a 2013 front-page article which questioned whether Cronulla Sharks NRL player Jon Mannah's death was accelerated by the use of peptides" (AAP, 2/16). ... Victorian schools have been warned not to use the banned 34 Australian Football League Essendon players in any coaching or mentoring capacity "even if it is unpaid work."
The warning to schools "came after one leading grammar school in Melbourne sought clarification" from the AFL if it could use one of the 34 players in its football program.
The players "risked incurring an additional ban of up to two years if they were caught doing anything in breach of the strict conditions of their ban" (THE AGE, 2/16). ... The probe report on three suspended top Athletics Kenya officials "will be forwarded to the IAAF Ethics Commission next month, lawyer Sharad Rao who is conducting the investigations said on Monday."
The former director of public prosecutions in Kenya revealed investigations "were almost complete." Rao said,
"Latest by the end of March, but very likely by the middle of March. It's not a verdict. What I will be doing is reporting back to the IAAF Ethics Commission. If my report indicates there has been wrongdoing, they will actually hear the matter" (XINHUA, 2/15). ... All-Russian Athletics Federation Secretary General Mikhail Butov said that all Russian athletes "must sign an anti-doping declaration to take part in this month’s national indoor athletics championships." Butov: "Without their signature on the document, they will not be allowed to compete." Those who have "signed the declaration pledge never to use, transport, store or distribute the substances listed in the banned medications record" (AFP, 2/16).
