Hungarian swimmer banned from leaving South Korea for sexual harassment probe
South Korean police have banned Hungarian swimmer Tamas Kenderesi from leaving the country as they investigate allegations of sexual harassment against the Olympic bronze medallist, authorities said on Sunday.
Kenderesi, who was competing at the world championships in Gwangju, about 330 km (205 miles) south of Seoul, was arrested in the early hours of Sunday and questioned over an incident at a nightclub, an official at the Gwangju Seobu Police Station said.
A Hungarian team official confirmed Kenderesi had been questioned and that he had been released and returned to the Athletes Village.
However, Kenderesi would not be allowed to leave South Korea for the next 10 days, the police official said, requesting anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.
Yonhap News Agency reported earlier that the athlete had denied the allegation.
The 22-year-old finished last in the final of the men’s 200 metres butterfly in Gwangju on Wednesday.
Organisers of the event declined to comment as it is a private matter not related to the competition.
On Saturday, a deck at a Gwangju nightclub collapsed, injuring several foreign athletes competing at the World Aquatics Championships, rescue officials said.
'Embarrassed' Australia defend concealing Shayna Jack's positive test
Swimming Australia on Sunday defended their concealment of Shayna Jack's positive doping test while one of her team mates was conducting a high profile public campaign against China's Sun Yang at the world championships.
Jack was withdrawn from the Australia squad ahead of the championships in Gwangju with the swimmer and Swimming Australia (SA) initially saying it was for personal reasons.
The 20-year-old freestyle swimmer, however, revealed on Saturday that she had tested positive for a banned substance in an out-of-competition test on June 26.
The news prompted accusations of hypocrisy to be levelled at Australia with SA covering up the violation just as Mack Horton was publicly condemning Olympic champion Sun, who served a drug ban in 2014 and is embroiled in another doping controversy.
Chief executive Leigh Russell, however, said that SA had been bound by confidentiality while an investigation was conducted by the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA).
"An Australian swimmer returning a positive result is both bitterly disappointing and embarrassing to our team, our sport and our country," Russell told reporters in Melbourne on Sunday.
"The ASADA agreement requires Swimming Australia to maintain confidentiality until such time as either ASADA or the individual athlete release details of an adverse result.
"I accept this is a frustrating position but I also accept that Shayna has a right to a fair process."
Former ASADA chief Richard Ings had said earlier that rules did allowed sports to identify athletes who had adverse test results.
"When an athlete is provisionally suspended, the rules do allow the sport to make a public announcement," he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
"Ultimately, what was said by Shayna Jack and Swimming Australia weeks ago about vague personal reasons become transparent weeks later as a lie. The truth needs to be told at the beginning."
ASADA later released a statement backing Russell's stance.
Russell said Jack should enjoy presumption of innocence until the process was completed but if she was found guilty they would "enforce any sanction imposed".
Jack has denied wittingly taking a banned substance. Russell said she was unable to reveal what Jack substance had tested positive for.
Horton had earlier sparked a firestorm at the championships when he refused to acknowledge Sun, who he has previously declaimed as a "drug cheat", during the 400m freestyle medal ceremony.
The Chinese multiple world champion is competing under the shadow of a World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) appeal against governing body FINA's decision to clear the 27-year-old of wrongdoing during the random drug test last September.
Russell said SA shared the Rio Olympic champion's opinion on doping in sport and suggested that an earlier revelation of Jack's failed test would not have changed his stance.
"Mack is making a stand for something he believes in and I think we have the same stance," she said. "We absolutely do not want drugs in our sport.
"I think that Mack made a stance he was comfortable with, and he would be comfortable with that today."
SA were also critcised for not having a member of the management or coaching staff face reporters in Gwangju when the news broke on Saturday, leaving world and Olympic champion Cate Campbell to represent the team.
"That was my call, in retrospect, we could have done that differently," Russell said.
