Swimming: Chinese stand firm over drugs disgrace

China have insisted their team would not be withdrawn from the World Championships despite a swimmer and coach being charged with drug trafficking. The Chinese received international condemnation after claiming vials containing human growth hormones discovered in a random search yesterday were brought for someone living in Australia.

The swimmer Yuan Yuan and her coach, Zhou Zhewen, have been charged with trafficking an illegal performance-enhancing drug by Fina, the world governing body. Each faces a ban of at least four years.

The rest of the team have been cleared to compete in the championships which commence in Perth's Challenge Stadium on Monday despite calls for them to be sent home in disgrace.

With China's women swimmers expected to reap a rich harvest of medals, it will inevitably leave a pall of suspicion hanging over the competition. Even if they fail to live up to their rankings it will only raise speculation they have been ordered to lose by officials in Peking.

Shi Tianshu, China's chef de mission, said in Perth yesterday: "We have come here with 23 swimmers and 12 coaches. But if one or two people make a mistake, you cannot regard that individual behaviour as a collective one."

The Fina secretary, Gunnar Werner, said no action would be taken against the Chinese team "as we have not found any reason to do that". He confirmed the entire Chinese team had been drug-tested at the championships and expected the results to be known within 24 hours.

The Australia coach, Forbes Carlyle, called for the Chinese team to leave Perth. He said: "When you're caught with that amount of drugs on your person and you're part of a team, the whole team are implicated. They should be put on a plane and sent home."

Perth