Suspicious minds vex coach

Australian head coach Don Talbot hit out against the mistrust engendered by the scourge of doping abuse yesterday after world champion Ian Thorpe became the latest top swimmer to have his achievements called into question.

Talbot said Australia had been among teams which had undergone voluntary blood-testing at last April's world short-course championships in Hong Kong and Thorpe had been one of those tested.

"It really does anger me that swimmers doing the right things are being accused of being drug takers," Talbot said.

Australia's world record holder Thorpe rounded off his first visit to Britain with a brilliantly controlled winning swim in the 200 metres freestyle yesterday - then called for blood tests to rid the sport of drug taking.

The latest triumph by the 17-year-old wonderkid from Sydney completed a hat-trick of wins in the two-day world cup meet in Sheffield.

German men's team coach Manfred Thiesmann had said fellow coaches had been suspicious when the 17-year-old Thorpe, the youngest men's world champion in swimming history, broke his own 200 metres freestyle world short-course record at a World Cup meeting in Sydney in January.

"We sat in the stands in Sydney. When he swam the record they all shook their heads," Thiesmann said. Asked about comments he had made to a German magazine reporter, Thiesmann said: "In no circumstance did I say he took drugs . . . (but) many people think it."

Thorpe said yesterday: "All I can say is that I am not on drugs. Everybody knows that, although there may be a minority who don't believe me.

"The only drug I take is the hard work that I do in training. I know I haven't done anything wrong. I have never taken drugs and I wouldn't take drugs because it is clearly cheating." Talbot, a fierce critic of China and the long record of doping abuse among their swimmers, took Thiesmann's comments philosophically. He said the German had been "a friend of ours for a long time" and shared his frustration at shortcomings in the fight against doping.

"It's an undeniable fact that we've got to have a fool-proof system," Talbot said. "It's up to the IOC and FINA to do something about it. They've got to start taking blood. It's the only way to be sure if someone is cheating or not."

Thiesmann added that "there were naturally suspicions when Thorpe was swimming so much faster than his rivals but there was no proof, the Australian had never tested positive".