Swimming: Boycott more likely

ENGLAND'S selectors yesterday added to the controversy surrounding Sarah Hardcastle's threat to boycott the World Championships.

Hardcastle, unhappy at the exclusion of her coach, Rosa Gallop, from the England coaching staff for the Commonwealth Games in Vancouver, and from the Great Britain staff for the World Championships in Rome next month, insists she will not go to Italy if Gallop cannot afford to pay her own way to both championships.

The England selectors, informed yesterday that they could take another coach to the Commonwealth Games have offered the extra place to Ian Oliver, of the City of Newcastle club, and not to Gallop.

Gallop has been offered pounds 750 towards her travel costs by the Amateur Swimming Association and the Great Britain Federation but she says she needs to find more than pounds 4,000.

Dr Ian Gibb, chairman of the England selectors, said: 'The choice of Ian Oliver is certainly not intended as a snub to Rosa Gallop. Oliver has a lot of experience working with teams, and the consensus of opinion was that Rosa has not got the same depth of experience.'

Nick Gillingham, who has a back problem, must pass a medical at the weekend before he can join the England Commonwealth Games team.