SYDNEY: World number two Iga Swiatek said on Friday she was ready to put a drugs scandal behind her, insisting there was no reason for the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to appeal against her case.
The 23-year-old Pole tested positive for the heart medication trimetazidine (TMZ) in an out-of-competition sample in August when she was ranked number one.
However, the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) accepted that the violation was not intentional and she escaped with a one-month sanction that saw her miss three tournaments in Asia and lose her top ranking.
News of the saga only emerged in late November and she will play her first tournament since then at the mixed-teams United Cup in Sydney ahead of the Australian Open next month.
Swiatek said that, while the incident had been “mentally tough,” the public response had been generally positive, allaying fears that she would be ostracized.
“I think people, most of them, are understanding,” said the five-time Grand Slam champion.
“And the ones who read the documents and are aware of how the system works, they know that I had no fault and I had no influence on what was going on.
“I try to just go on with my life and focus on different things, focus on preparing for the season and on tennis, because this is the best thing you can do after a case like that,” she said.
Her case is similar to that of Italian men’s world number one Jannik Sinner.
He was exonerated by the ITIA for twice testing positive for traces of the steroid clostebol in March. But WADA appealed against the decision in September and he is awaiting the outcome.
Swiatek said she does not anticipate WADA will follow the same path with her.
“I gave every possible evidence and there is not much, honestly, more to do,” she said.
“There is no point to do an appeal in our opinion.
“But, you know, I guess overall, this whole process was pretty abstract sometimes and hard to understand from a point of view where you don’t think about the law and everything.
“But honestly, this is about the law and the wording and this kind of stuff. So I’m not expecting an appeal, but I have kind of no influence on what’s going to happen.
“But I can say from the processes that I went through and how they treated me from the beginning, that it seemed fair for me,” she said.
“I managed to give the source (of the contamination) pretty quickly. That’s why the case closed, pretty quickly.”

SYDNEY: Two sailors have been killed in separate incidents in the treacherous Sydney to Hobart bluewater classic, officials said Friday, as a string of yachts limped out of a race fleet battered by powerful winds.

Both crew members — a 55-year-old man on Flying Fish Arctos and a 65-year-old man on Bowline — were struck on the head by booms as the yachts raced southwards along the New South Wales coast, police said.

Other crew tried to revive the two Australians but were unsuccessful. They were the first fatalities in the race since 1998.

Police believe crews on both boats were changing sails when the booms swung, said New South Wales marine area command superintendent Joseph McNulty.

“The hull moves, the sails are moving, the booms are moving. It’s a technical change of sail at sea. So that may have contributed to the deaths of those people today,” he told reporters.

“Both those crews are doing it pretty tough at the moment. They are shaken up by what they’ve seen and what they’ve had to do.”

So far 17 yachts — including race record holder Comanche — have pulled out from the initial fleet of 104 that left Sydney Harbor on Boxing Day, organizers said.

Several were dismasted or suffered damaged mainsails.

The lead boats experienced winds overnight of 25 to 30 knots — near gale force, said David Jacobs, vice commodore of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia.

“So they’re traveling extremely fast,” he told reporters.

“The sea was not unusually large from the information I have received,” he said.

The deaths would hit the racing community hard, Jacobs said.

“On a boat itself they train together, live together, cook together, they do everything together. It would be devastating, as we are devastated,” he said.

He promised an investigation by the yacht club to help improve safety in the event but said the race would go on.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese issued a statement saying it was “heartbreaking that two lives have been lost at what should have been a time of joy.”

Gale-force winds and high seas had been forecast for the 628-nautical mile event, which ends in the Tasmanian state capital Hobart after the fleet tackles the notorious Bass Strait.

But this was not an “extreme” forecast, Jacobs said.

“These fleets can handle those winds easily. They are ocean racers, they are used to the winds,” he said.

In a night of drama, one man was swept overboard from the yacht Porco Rosso and carried more than a kilometer (more than half a mile) away before being rescued by his crew, Jacobs said.

Weather is a critical factor in the race, first held in 1945, with winds and sea conditions often changing rapidly.

The overnight fatalities were the first in the race since 1998 when six men died, five boats sank and 55 sailors were rescued after a deep depression exploded over the fleet in Bass Strait.

Comanche’s retirement left the door open for supermaxi rival LawConnect to win line honors for the second straight year.

Comanche, which surged over the finish line in one day, 9 hours, 15 minutes and 24 seconds to set a new mark in 2017, was leading when she retired.

LawConnect held a lead of more than 18 nautical miles by early Friday afternoon over its nearest rival Celestial.

Wild Oats, which has twice won the race — the last time in 2014 — was among this year’s casualties, with rigging damage.

Alive, last year’s overall winner of the Tattersall Cup, which takes into account boat size and other factors, was one of the first to pull out this year, retiring with engine issues.