International Capsules: Liukin excited and ‘a little nervous' to compete

Nastia Liukin is excited about competing for the first time since the Beijing Olympics.

A little nervous, too.

The Olympic champion will do one event, the balance beam, on Saturday night at the CoverGirl Classic in Des Moines, Iowa. The national championships are in her hometown of Dallas in just three weeks, and she wanted to do one meet beforehand to get back in the routine of competition.

"It’s mostly for my mind," she said Friday night after her training session. "Just be out there to be under the pressure of the judges and the crowd and TV. I’m really excited about it, and obviously I’m going to be a little nervous. But it’s exciting to be here and be in this atmosphere again.

"This is what I love to do," she added, "so I’m excited to get back out here."

Liukin will join Universal Sports’ broadcast team after her one event. She’ll also help her father and coach, Valeri, with the seven other WOGA gymnasts competing at the Classic, the last qualifier for nationals.

Fellow Olympian Samantha Peszek is also making her return to competition Saturday. Peszek will do vault and balance beam.

Since winning gold in Beijing, Liukin’s life has been a whirlwind. She’s crisscrossed the country for appearances, photo shoots and commercial opportunities. She had a front-row seat at Fashion Week, visited with Oprah and last week won female athlete of the year at the ESPYs.

All of those experiences have been incredible, but they took a toll on her training.

"I just wasn’t able to get consistently in the gym," Liukin said. "I’d be at the gym a few days and then leave for a few days, and it was like starting over."

But gymnastics is still what Liukin wants to do. Loves to do. She’s cut back on her traveling, and her routines are slowly taking shape. She plans to do uneven bars at nationals, and is working on her endurance for her floor routine.

And while she may not do the all-around at the world championships in October in London, it is in her future plans.

"It’s getting there, slowly but surely," she said. "It’s finally starting to get exciting. I’m actually here and competing. Not full out, but you have to start somewhere."

The last time Liukin competed, she was winning her fifth Olympic medal, a silver on balance beam. She admitted it was a bit strange to walk into Vets Auditorium on Friday, especially when she noticed some of the younger gymnasts staring and taking pictures.

"I was like, ‘Why? I’m the same Nastia,"’ she said.

Yes, but most gymnasts — especially junior-level ones — don’t get a chance to share the chalk bowl with an Olympic champion.

Soon enough, though, everyone was focused on their own work and Liukin was just another gymnast — just as she wants it.

"(Beijing) happened in the past and that was great. Now that I do want to continue, I can’t ever tell myself, ‘You’re an Olympic champion and that’s OK,"’ Liukin said. "I have to set that aside, and I’ve made new goals for myself."

After stressful year, Phelps ready to go in Rome

ROME — Michael Phelps stumbled through his answer, struggling to put the words together, and finally offered up an apology.

"I’m kind of out of it right now," he said Friday, sitting in a marble-adorned Italian hall erected by Il Duce himself. "I just woke up from a nap. Sorry about that."

I guess we can cut Phelps some slack.

After all, it’s been a mighty busy year. He became the winningest Olympian ever, popped up on one TV show after another, pumped out another book, was the subject of a most embarrassing picture, anguished over whether he even wanted to keep swimming, and finally decided it was time to jump back in the pool.

Now, racing only himself and his place in history, Phelps is at the world championships, a meet that will serve as the jumping-off point for the final lap of his career.

"It’s been a long year," Phelps said Friday, sporting that scraggly semblance of a beard he always attempts to grow before a meet. "I’ve had a lot of really, really high points, and a lot of low points. It’s been a learning year both in and out of the pool. It’s been a difficult journey."

This is where he’s most comfortable, of course, setting goals at the pool and seeing if he can meet them all by the time he calls it a career after the 2012 London Olympics.

Phelps won’t be tackling the same grueling program that produced six gold medals in Athens in 2004, seven wins at the 2007 world championships in Australia, and a record eight golds medals last summer at Beijing, breaking Mark Spitz’s 36-year-old Olympic mark.

Heck, this a relative vacation — six events, three of them relays.

"It is a little different," Phelps said. "I don’t think it’s going to be as stressful, and hopefully not as tiring. We’ll see. I’m looking forward to it. This is my first big meet to have a smaller program. I can focus a little bit more on specific events rather than worry about swimming 20 times a week."

He’s still planning to take on some new events, but none will be on display in the Eternal City. He didn’t enter the 100 backstroke at the U.S. trials, where it would have been difficult to qualify for the team, and pulled out of the 100 free because of a stiff neck.

Phelps is limiting himself to the 200 free along with the 100 and 200 butterfly — three events in which he’s the Olympic champion and world record holder. He’ll probably swim all three relays as well.

The decision to withdraw from the 100 free drew a provocative response from two-time defending world champion Filippo Mangini of Italy, who said the neck injury was simply an excuse because Phelps knew he couldn’t win against a talented field.

The American leaped at the chance to address Mangini’s comment when it came up at a news conference held two days before the start of the swimming competition at the Foro Italico.

"The neck has never been an excuse as was stated in the paper by one of the athletes," Phelps said. "I’ve never been afraid to swim any events. I actually wanted to swim that race. But that race was not swum because I didn’t want to put pressure on something and possibly jeopardize something in the future. It was a precautionary measure we took. We had seen the doctor, and we decided that’s what was best for me."

Phelps’ coach Bob Bowman also chimed in.

"I think we will see Michael in the 100 free before too long," he said.

Bowman’s plan for this year never included the 100 free, even though Phelps had been swimming it regularly — he’s the American record holder — since completing a three-month suspension imposed by USA Swimming over that infamous picture of the swimmer inhaling from a marijuana pipe.

In Rome, the preliminaries and semifinals of the 100 free fall on the same day as the final of 200 fly.

"I didn’t want to mess with his fly," Bowman said. "He’s swimming that too good right now."

As it is, Phelps still figures to swim more races than anyone — 12 over eight days if everything goes according to plan. But get this, he’ll actually have an entire day off — gasp! — five days into the program, which should greatly help with his recovery.

Phelps already has gotten back to top form quicker than anyone expected, even his coach.

Earlier this month, Phelps broke the world record in the 100 fly at the U.S. trials. Bowman thought it would take more training to reach that point, considering his swimmer took six months off after Beijing, then was barred from competing until early May by the suspension.

"Right now, for the time spent in the pool, I’ve been able to get back to a pretty good place and a good starting point for the next three years," Phelps said. "I’ve seen some things that were better than they were over the last four years, but there’s still a lot of improvement needed to be where I want to be."

-- Paul Newberry

This could be the asterisk world championships

ROME — If every record is broken at the world championships by swimmers wearing suits that will soon be illegal, what should we make of all those astonishing numbers?

Should they be accompanied by an asterisk, as one prominent coach suggested? Or should they just be viewed as the products of a different era, a target that will seem out of reach at first but surely will fall someday.

No matter what, these are a world championships like no other.

"A lot of us are joking that this might be the fastest we ever go," American backstroker Aaron Peirsol said. "We might as well enjoy this year."

Swimming’s governing body, FINA, finally stepped up Friday to pass a rule banning the sort of high-tech bodysuits that have been credited — or blamed, depending on your perspective — for turning the record book into something that had to be reprinted on an almost weekly basis.

More than 100 world marks fell in 2008. Nearly 30 have already gone down this year. Every record is considered highly vulnerable at this meet, which is the biggest outside of the Olympics and begins Sunday.

"This will be a world championships where numerous, numerous world records are broken," predicted Michael Scott, Britain’s national performance director.

Not everyone agrees — Michael Phelps’ coach Bob Bowman said "it’s never as many as people think" — but whatever marks are standing after eight days in Rome could provide daunting targets beginning in 2010.

FINA took the drastic step of banning bodysuits altogether for the men, limiting them to so-called "jammers" that only go from the waist to the top of the knees. Women will be able to wear suits that must stop at the shoulders and the top of the knees.

It’s not quite a throwback to a different era — remember those teeny-weeny briefs the men once wore? — but it’s certainly a stunning change for a sport that took its first drastic turn at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, when Ian Thorpe showed up wearing a daunting black suit that covered everything but his head, feet and hands.

While most swimmers stayed away from that much coverage, it wasn’t long before the swimsuit manufacturers were in a high-stakes races to see who could come up with a model that provided the best buoyancy, allowing the athletes to glide along the top of the water where they faced less resistance.

The top suits also provided more support around the middle of the body, increasing endurance and allowing some swimmers to get away with less training.

Speedo developed the LZR Racer with help from NASA and blew everyone else away. But shortly after the Olympics, other companies — led by the obscure Italian firm Jaked — came up with a polyurethane model that made the LZR look like a slowpoke.

Now, apparently, it’s all coming to an end.

But not before these world championships.

"Some of these records might not be broken for a long, long time," Peirsol said.

The prospect of top swimmers suddenly going 2 or 3 seconds slower than their previous times led Mark Schubert, head coach of the U.S. team, to suggest an asterisk be placed on any record from the last 18 months of the bodysuit era, when the manufacturers were coming up with everything short of a motor on the suits.

"That was just an idea, perhaps to have two lists — one list with the new suits, then one list with the old suits," Schubert said.

In a strange twist, Schubert was one of the LZR’s leading cheerleaders when it was unveiled in February 2008, urging all Americans to wear it, no matter their contractual obligations, if they wanted to have a chance to win gold in Beijing. When the LZR was surpassed by other suits, he changed his position and urged FINA to rein things in.

The governing body was slow to act, and now we’ve got a bunch of records that could truly stand the test of time. Years. Perhaps even decades.

"It will be difficult to eclipse those records if we go back to true swimming, without the rubberized suits," Schubert said.

But it’s worth noting that East Germany once put up a host of daunting times, which were later revealed to be a fraud because of the Communist country’s massive doping program. No asterisks were placed beside those marks.

"That’s who we should have put an asterisk next to," said Rowdy Gaines, a three-time Olympic champion from the East German era, who now serves as the top fundraiser for USA Swimming as well as a television commentator. "We didn’t do it then. I think it would be crazy to do it now."

Eventually, all the tainted East German records were broken. That’s what will eventually happen to all the marks from the bodysuit era, Gaines said, even though a record such as Fred Bousquet’s mark of 20.94 seconds in the 50 free looks especially daunting — and it might be even lower after Rome.

"It will be tough to go 20.9 in a jammer," American sprinter Cullen Jones said, shaking his head.

While most leading swim nations hailed FINA’s decision, Gaines is one who hates to see the bodysuit go. He worries that it will actually hurt the popularity of the sport, which has increased its ranks at the grassroots level and drawn more publicity of a national scale, largely because of Phelps’ eight gold medals in Beijing and all the hullabaloo over bodysuits.

"I like the suit. I think it’s great for the sport," he said. "It gets the average person to talk about our sport. It gets people involved in out sport who maybe would not have done so. People love to see fast swimming."

Gaines points out that other sports have been dramatically altered by technology, everything from auto racing to golf and tennis. He wonders if there’s a young girl out there who set an age-group record in a bodysuit, but will lose interest in the pool when she can’t go as fast. Most troubling, he worries that casual fans will fade away when there’s no longer a frenzy of world records.

"The real baseball fans likes to see a 2-1 game, but the average fans wants to see a 10-8 game," Gaines said. "That’s what I think is going to hurt our sport. We’re going to go back to being once every four years."

-- Paul Newberry

2 French swimmers appeal to CAS for suit approval

ROME — French swimmers Amaury Leveaux and Aurore Mongel filed appeals to the Court of Arbitration for Sport on Friday seeking last-minute approval of their TYR-manufactured bodysuits for the world championships.

"We received an application this afternoon. It is a normal appeal but with a request for urgent written measures," CAS secretary general Matthieu Reeb told The Associated Press. "We are working on it now and we hope to have an answer tomorrow."

Swimming events at Foro Italico begin on Sunday. On Friday, FINA passed a rule banning bodysuits, but it won’t go into effect until after the worlds.

The TYR B8 was rejected by swimming governing body FINA last month, and the American company maintains the 100 percent polyurethane suit is essentially the same as the Jaked 01, which did meet FINA’s standards.

"The Jaked 01 was banned and then re-approved not in accordance with the Dubai charter," TYR promotion director Matthew Zimmer said. "Ours was certified and has identical permeability as the Jaked and was not approved."

TYR already took its case to a French court in Strasbourg last week, and received a ruling that the suits need to be retested, but there wasn’t enough time to do so before the worlds.

Consequently, Zimmer walked into FINA’s suit approval room at the worlds on Thursday with suits for Leveaux and Mongel, along with letters from a lawyer indicating he was representing them, and asked again that the suits be approved.

Zimmer then received a letter from FINA’s legal department saying that only approved suits listed on the federation’s Web site would be allowed, and he appealed to the CAS on Leveaux’s and Mongel’s behalf.

Leveaux, especially, needs a quick response, as he is scheduled to race for France in the 400-meter freestyle relay on Sunday.

"Anything can happen, like always, but obviously (the CAS) thought we had merit," Zimmer said. "It feels good right now, and hopefully in 24 hours it will feel even better."

-- Andrew Dampf

Russia wins another gold in synchro at worlds

ROME — Russia kept up its domination in synchronized swimming as the team of Natalia Ishchenko and Svetlana Romashina won gold in duet free Friday.

The duo received a total score of 98.833 — all 9.9s for technical merit, 9.8s and 9.9s for artistic impression — after performing to a composite of tunes dubbed "Secret Agents," even pointing their fingers as if holding guns at one point in the routine.

The Spanish team of Gemma Mengual and Andrea Fuentes took the silver with a 98.333, while China’s Jiang Tingting and Jiang Wenwen settled for bronze with 97.000.

"We wanted to distinguish ourselves from the other swimmers," Romashina said. "Our performance was perfect, our choreography was easy and full of details."

The Russians have won five of six events at the synchro pool — every one they’ve entered. They’ll also be heavy favorites in the final event, team free.

"We have been training for eight months," Romashina said. "We didn’t select this kind of music for a particular reason. We just wanted to add a new style to our performance."

Mengual, who complained about the scoring when she finished behind Ishchenko in solo free, thought the judges were right on the mark in duet. Spain trailed the Russians by a much larger margin during the preliminaries.

"Compared to yesterday’s performance, we corrected a few things and this was appreciated," Mengual said. "I believe this time we have been evaluated correctly and the final score reflects the level of our performance."

The bronze medalists are twins, which sure helps in synchronized swimming.

"There are figures that only we, as twins, are able to perform," Wenwen said. "This is because our legs are equally long."

-- Paul Newberry

Mum’s the word on swimsuits for British team

ROME — Hoping to avoid any distractions caused by high-tech suits, the British team has barred media from asking its swimmers about the issue after arriving in Rome for the world championships.

Michael Scott, the national performance director, said Friday the focus should be on the swimmers’ accomplishments during the eight days of competition. He was the only one taking questions about suits, and only after a news conference including a half-dozen swimmers.

The British team, led by Beijing double gold medalist Rebecca Adlington, is gearing up its performance in hopes of a strong showing at its home Olympics in 2012. But Scott said its too early to talk about challenging the Australians for the No. 2 spot on the world stage behind the Americans.

China dominates preliminaries of synchro diving

ROME — China’s Huo Liang and Lin Yue have dominated the preliminaries of men’s 10-meter synchronized diving at the world championships.

The duo received the highest marks in five of the six rounds on Friday and totaled 480.06 points.

Patrick Hausding and Sasha Klein of Germany were far behind in second with 447.24, while Cuba’s Jose Antonio Guerra Oliva and Jeinkler Ernesto Aguirre Mano took third at 427.38, just ahead of Americans David Boudia and Thomas Finchum with 426.54.

The finals are Saturday, the final diving event of the championships before the focus turns to swimming.

Guo and Wu defend 3-meter synchro title at worlds

ROME — Guo Jingjing and Wu Minxia have won the gold medal in women’s 3-meter synchronized diving to defend their title at the world championships.

Also the Olympic champions, Guo and Wu earned 348 points over five dives Friday. Tania Cagnotto and Francesca Dallape of Italy took silver with 329.70 points, and Julia Pakhalina and Anastasia Pozdniakova of Russia were third with 310.80.

Australia team physician caught with expired drugs

ROME — Italian authorities have confiscated expired medication from Australia team physician Michael Makdissi upon his arrival at the world swimming championships.

Medication listed on the World Anti Doping-Agency’s banned list was also found. But Swimming Australia said Friday that all of the banned medications were approved by WADA under the therapeutic use exemption, which allows for conditions like asthma to be treated.

Cornel Marculescu, the executive director of swimming governing body FINA, says the problem was only with the expired medication, not the banned substances.

Track & Field

Bolt wins 100, Isinbayeva loses in pole vault

LONDON — Against a strong headwind, Usain Bolt eased to victory in the 100 meters at the London Grand Prix on Friday in his last race at the distance before the world championships next month.

The Olympic champion and world record-holder finished in 9.91 seconds at Crystal Palace.

Another of the sport’s biggest stars, Yelena Isinbayeva, was stunned in the pole vault, losing for the first time in six years.

Anna Rogowska of Poland beat her on countback. Isinbayeva entered the competition at 15 feet, 4¼ inches, but cleared it only on her final attempt. The Russian failed three times at 15-8¼.

"I’m a little disappointed; it’s unusual for me as I don’t know how to come second," said Isinbayeva, who last lost a major event in 2003. "I had a really good indoor season and I was hoping to carry that to outdoors, but I have had some injuries which did not help with my training.

"I am confident for the worlds because I have three weeks before my competition. I will take a rest. I will be in my best shape."

Bolt was also in high spirits for the worlds in Berlin from Aug. 15-23 after running against a 1.7 meter per second headwind.

Fellow Jamaican Yohan Blake was second in 10.11 and former world record-holder Asafa Powell, who was unbeaten in his three previous visits, finished back in sixth.

"I feel really good about going to Berlin and I’m going there on a mission," Bolt said. "I’m just glad I got through the race injury free.

"My start wasn’t the best but I’m improving and I now have more work to do. I’m in really good shape right now and I don’t see any reason to run myself out. I did well and was proud of myself. I got it right so I’m happy."

Bolt is confident of being in top form for the worlds.

"I’m still at 85 percent (fitness) and after this it’s all training. I’ve got two or three weeks of good training to put in," he said. "So I guess I will be 100 percent by Berlin."

The 22-year-old Bolt will be back on the track Saturday to race in the 4x100 relay. His victory returned the focus of Jamaican sports back to the track after news emerged Friday that five athletes from the island — four men and one woman — tested positive for banned substances. There was no suggestion that Bolt, Blake or Powell were implicated.

"As long as I’m clean I’m just going forward," Bolt said. "It’s sad for the sport because the sport was getting on so well. I was trying to bring it back. This is probably a step backwards because people start questioning everybody, especially from Jamaica.

"For me it doesn’t matter because I will be going out there, day after day, doing my best. I get tested all the time. It shows that people get tested and they get caught if they are on drugs."

Also on the first day of the south London meet, Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie of the Bahamas won the women’s 200 in 23.11. Marshevet Hooker of the United States withstood a late surge from Emily Freeman to finish second in 23.30.

"Everyone has been saying I am too old but a week ago I realized that it has nothing to do with age," the 33-year-old Ferguson-McKenzie said a week after setting a world-leading time at the Vardinoyiannia meet. "My heart is in it; I am healthy."

Dayron Robles of Cuba won the 110 hurdles in 13.29. Ryan Brathwaite of Barbados was second in 13.31 and Andy Turner of Britain was third in 13.31.

Mo Farah failed to break the 27-year-old British record in the 5,000, but won in 13 minutes, 9.14 seconds.

Brandon Roulhac of the United States won the triple jump.

Nicola Sanders of Britain continued her return to action following a lengthy injury layoff by winning the 400 in 51.54, just holding off American pair Shana Cox and Monica Hargrove.

"The wind down the home straight was pretty fierce," Sanders said.

Christian Cantwell won the shot put, and American teammate Reese Hoffa was second.

"This is about as good as you can get," Cantwell said. "It was perfect."

-- Rob Harris

5 Jamaica track athletes test positive for doping

KINGSTON, Jamaica — Five Jamaican track and field athletes have tested positive for doping, although a newspaper reported none of the nation’s premier sprinters is among the group.

Track’s governing body confirmed Friday that it received paperwork about the tests from the Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission. IAAF spokesman Nick Davies did not identify the athletes or the drug.

Herb Elliott of the Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission told Radio Jamaica that four men and one woman have been informed of the results and will have an opportunity to contest them at a hearing. They tested positive at last month’s national championships and all of them were chosen for the 46-member team representing Jamaica at next month’s world championships in Berlin, Elliott said.

The Jamaica Observer, citing unidentified sources, first reported the positive tests and said they did not include any of the top sprinters. The newspaper reported there were two members of the men’s 400-meter relay team, two on the men’s 1,600-meter relay and a female runner in the 1,600 relay.

Three-time Olympic gold medalist Usain Bolt said he was not concerned.

"As long as I’m clean I’m just going forward," Bolt said after winning the 100 meters at the London Grand Prix. "It’s sad for the sport because the sport was getting on so well. I was trying to bring it back. This is probably a step backwards because people start questioning everybody, especially from Jamaica.

"For me it doesn’t matter because I will be going out there, day after day, doing my best. I get tested all the time. It shows that people get tested and they get caught if they are on drugs."

Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding called a meeting with top athletics officials to discuss the situation, government spokesman Ken Jones said.

Success in track and field is a source of national pride in the Caribbean nation whose sprinters dominated the Beijing Olympics.

"I’m heartbroken because you never want anybody from your country or your team to ever be tested positive," Aleen Bailey said after the women’s 200 at the London GP. "It hurts when it’s someone from your country, so it’s kind of hard for me right now."

Jamaican sprinter Julien Dunkley was dropped from the team a year ago after testing positive for the banned drug Boldenone during Olympic trials. Dunkley, who said he was innocent, also was banned for two years by the IAAF.

Former 100-meter world record-holder Asafa Powell said "it’s their bad luck."

"It’s not for me to worry about," he said. "It doesn’t affect me one bit. People might be saying bad stuff now but it doesn’t really bother me."

-- Howard Campbell