UK Athletics in firing line

Drugs In Sport: Australian sport's anti-drugs chief has hit out at Britain and the US for their records of banning competitors…

Drugs In Sport: Australian sport's anti-drugs chief has hit out at Britain and the US for their records of banning competitors who have failed drug tests. John Mendoza, the chief executive of the Australian Sports Drug Agency (ASDA), compared both countries with the former East Germany, where drug use by elite competitors was widely encouraged by officials.

"It may not be the sin of commission that we saw in East Germany," Mendoza said yesterday of the reluctance of Britain and the US to issue bans against athletes who test positive, "but it is the sin of omission."

Mendoza is an influential member of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and supervised work in Australia in the build-up to last year's Sydney Olympics.

In a related story, it emerged yesterday that the governing body of British athletics continued to claim grants for Mark Richardson after the 400 metres runner was handed a two-year doping ban last December. UK Athletics received £4,500 for Richardson in grants from funds provided by the British Lottery because of what chief executive David Moorcroft described as "an administrative oversight".

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Tennis: The father of Venus and Serena Williams has told how his family was subjected to racial slurs at the Indian Wells tennis tournament after Venus withdrew from a semi-final match with her sister. Richard Williams told newspaper USA Today that his family was booed and taunted by a racist crowd at the Ericsson Open.

"When Venus and I were walking down the stairs to our seats, people kept calling me nigger," Williams said. "One guy said `I wish it was '75, we'd skin you alive'. That's when I stopped and walked toward that way. Then I realised that (my) best bet was to handle the situation non-violently. I had trouble holding back tears. I think Indian Wells disgraced America."

Tennis: Australian Open champion Andre Agassi cruised into the fourth round of the Tennis Masters Series in Miami yesterday with a 6-1, 6-4 victory over German veteran David Prinosil. Agassi next faces another German, Tommy Haas, who defeated Dominik Hrbaty 6-7 (4/7), 6-0, 6-3. Switzerland's Martina Hingis led the way into the women's quarter-finals, with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Spain's Magui Serna. Fifth-seeded American Serena Williams rolled past Kim Clijsters 6-0, 6-2 in a repeat of the Indian Wells final.