Association of Tennis Professionals CEO Chris Kermode "is to be questioned by MPs on Wednesday as part of a parliamentary inquiry into the recent match-fixing scandal in the game." The session -- which has been convened by the Culture, Media and Sport select committee -- "will require the attendance of the three men who led the hastily arranged press conference in Melbourne last month," just a couple of hours after the broadcasting of the BBC’s match-fixing allegations on News at Ten. Kermode "will thus be accompanied by Nigel Willerton, head of the Tennis Integrity Unit, and Mark Young, the experienced American who leads the legal department at the ATP" (London TELEGRAPH, 2/20). ... Kenya Sports Minister Hassan Wario said that the country "wants two more months to show the global anti-doping agency it has cleaned up its athletics, hoping to avoid the risk of being barred from this year's Olympic Games." Kenya missed a World Anti-Doping Agency deadline last week to implement new regulations in a country "where some 40 athletes have been banned for doping in the last three years." Wario said that "he was confident WADA would agree a two-month extension" (REUTERS, 2/20). ... The Belgian Cycling Federation confirmed that it is ready to spend €50,000 ($55,700) "to buy a sophisticated handheld electronic scanner so that it can quickly and efficiently check bikes for possible mechanical doping techniques before races." The first systematic pre-race tests "could be carried out at next Saturday’s Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, the first major professional road race on the 2016 Belgian calendar" (CYCLING NEWS, 2/21). ... Criticism by leading sports officials that the Australian Institute of Sport has become a "ghost town," devoid of elite athletes and premier coaches, has prompted a federal government review of its operations, only five months out from the Rio Olympics.
The halls of residence of the once-proud institute, home to nearly 700 athletes and 76 coaches at its zenith in '00, "are now utilised mainly by school groups visiting Parliament House, with bureaucrats doing laps of its swimming pools or working out in its gymnasiums."
A change of policy by the Australian Sports Commission after the 2012 London Olympics "forced the closure of AIS programs, with the nation's leading sports handed extra funding in exchange for being responsible for these services" (SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, 2/21).
