News for March 18, 1997

McGee breaks hour record

Olympic Games bronze medallist Bradley McGee has confirmed his billing as a legitimate candidate to one day claim the world's most prestigious track cycling title - the world hour record.

After setting an Australian record of 50.05 kms at Adelaide's Superdrome on Saturday night, McGee, 21, has set his sights on making an attempt every year before the Sydney 2000 Olympics. On Saturday night, McGee impressed thousands who watched as he smashed the former national record of 47.227 kms set by ACT professional Neil Stephens in 1987. Afterwards, McGee's coach, Charlie Walsh, said his rider's performance was a display of pure ability and raw courage.

"I would have to say that after setting this, he could one day be a rider to make an attempt for the world record", said Walsh, referring to the record that stands at 56.375 kms and was set by Englishman Chris Boardman last September.

"There are three points to consider when looking at Brad's ride. He road a bike which is currently aligned with the new rules on bikes, and not with the Superman position used by Boardmand", said Walsh, adding that had cost McGee up to 3 kms. "Furthermore, you have to look at Brad's age. He is a very, very young rider and most people ar ein their late 20s when they make an attempt on the hour."

"Finally, his preparation for this attempt was not totally ideal. It was not a long-term preparation and he has just returned from a hard training camp in Mexico."

McGee who will contest the individual pursuit title at the Australian Track Championships in Launceston this week, said he was aiming to beat 50 kms on Saturday night.

"Before, I did a test over 20 minutes at 51.8 km/h." he said. "After that, I wasn't sure that I would be able to hold it for that long. So i was aiming for 50."

McGee certainly had several painful moments on Saturday night, particularly with 32 minutes and also with 10 minutes to go. "The way that he managed to pull himself out of those troughts was certainly a mark of his courage." Walsh said

McGee's national pursuit title bid begins today when he lines up for the qualifying round.

Cough medication traps Neiwand in drugs test

Australia's most experienced cyclist, former world champion Gary Neiwand, has tested positive to a banned stimulant, pseudoephedrine.

Following hot on the heels of the Samantha Riley drug case, when she inadvertently took a banned prescription drug, Digesic, Neiwand was caught taking the stimulant which was contained in a cough medication.

Australian Cycling Federation president Ray Godkin announced yesterday that Neiwand had been fined $1,000 for the drugs breach.

Neiwand, who is in Japan contesting the lucrative keirin circuit, could not be contacted, although he had told cycling officials that he regretted taking the medication.

Earlier, Neiwand, from Elwood in Victoria, had told journalists that stories about him testing positive to drugs were scurrilous rumours.

On the Channel Seven Sportsworld show last week, Neiwand, 30, denied he was involved in any drugs implication and said anyone who tested positive to drugs, no matter how minor, following on the Sam Riley case, was stupid.

Neiwand was tested after contesting a "Night of Stars" carnival in Wanganui, New Zealand on January 25 this year, where he told drug testing officials that he had been taking Coldrex, an over-the-counter cough medication to help ward off the flu.

Godkin said yesterday that Neiwand felt obliged to compete in the carnival because organisers had flown him over.

Incredibly - because the Night of Stars meet was not officially sanctioned by the world cycling body UCI - Neiwand's transgression will be ignored by the world body.

ACF officials referred the positive test to its drug tribunal which recommended the $1,000 fine.

It is believed the tribunal has previously only handed down warnings to seven cyclists who have tested positive to stimulants over the past 11 years and the fine was in deference to Neiwand's immense experience.

"He should have known better," one official said yesterday.

Neiwand finished fourth at the Atlanta Olympics in a sprint event, but subsequently won gold at the world championships.

Australian Sports Commission executive director Jim Ferguson said he believed the ACF had handled the matter appropriately but that commission officers would investigate the case in light of Neiwand's AIS scholarship.

Meanwhile, Sydney's Olympic bronze medal cyclist Bradley McGee conquered one of the toughest and most excruciatingly painful events when he smashed the Australian one-hour record at the Adelaide velodrome on Saturday night.

Pumping the legs at an exacting pace and exact rate and battling the demons of the mind that relentlessly question the craziness of the effort, McGee completed 50.052km in the hour, surpassing the previous record of Neil Stephens who clocked up 47.227km in Launceston in April 1987.

"It was the toughest thing I have ever done, nothing comes close," McGee said. "I knew it was touch and go to make 50km and it can destroy you."

McGee will now go to Launceston for the Australian championships and contest the individual pursuit and other endurance events like the pointscore race.

Earlier in the night, former world sprint champion Darryn Hill broke the Adelaide Velodrome track record for the 200m sprint, clocking 10.548s.

Hills's speed translated to 68.25km/h, but he later said he would have liked to have gone quicker. "The night was a little bit cool, which makes it hard," he said.

Lucy Tyler-Sharman failed in her bid to wipe the name of her arch rival, Kathy Watt, from the record books in the 3000m individual pursuit.

Tyler-Sharman was keen to make a point to Watt, who has avoided a head-to-head clash with Tyler-Sharman at the national championships after withdrawing with a hamstring injury.

But Tyler-Sharman, the world silver medallist in the event, finished nearly five seconds outside Watt's record after making a late change to her gear selection.

Her time was 3mins43.16.

Neiwand fails drugs test

Australian cycling was handed another major setback yesterday when it was confirmed that former dual world champion and triple Commonwealth Games gold medallist, Gary Neiwand, has failed a drug test.

The champion sprinter's positive test - his first from as many as 120 in a 10-year career - was the first ever by a scholarship holder in the Australian Institute of Sport cycling program.

The 30-year-old Victorian was found positive for the banned stimulant pseudoephedrine after being random tested at the Night of Stars race meeting in Wanganui, New Zealand, on January 25.

Neiwand has not been suspended from competition, but fined $1000 ($US794) by the Australian Cycling Federation upon the recommendation of an independent Medical Tribunal seconded by the ACF to determine what action should be taken.

The infringement will not be held against Neiwand by cycling's world governing body, the Union Cycliste Internationale, because the NZ meeting was not sanctioned by the UCI.

"This penalty will not be recognised by the UCI because it was not one of their races. If Gary is positive again in a UCI event, then that will be a first time offence," ACF president, Ray Godkin, said.

The scandal is akin to that of Olympic breaststroke swimmer Samantha Riley, who avoided suspension after testing positive for banned narcotic analgesic dextropropoxythene, found in a headache pill she took at the world short-course championships in November, 1995.

Neiwand, currently racing in the lucrative Keirin circuit in Japan, was not available for comment last night. But he has claimed that the substance was contained in an over-the-counter medication called Coldrex.

Neiwand arrived in NZ for the track meeting on Thursday, January 23, and bought the medication to combat flu. While spending that day and the next in bed recovering, he doubted he would be able to race.

However, he decided otherwise, and after being asked to provide a urine sample for testing he informed the testing officer that he had taken the substance.

"It was our understanding Gary was notified by the NZ Sports Drug Agency that the A sample had returned positive for the stimulant, pseudoephedrine, and he was invited to be present for testing of the B sample," Godkin said.

Neiwand did not attend the B testing which returned another positive reading. And while rumours spread that he had failed, the ACF was not officially informed of the outcome until last Tuesday.

"The tribunal informed me they accepted Gary had made an error of judgment and were satisfied it was not a deliberate attempt to enhance performance," Godkin said, adding that Neiwand chose not to appeal the penalty which was endorsed by the ACF executive last Friday.