London 2012 Olympics: Australian weightlifter accused of demanding cash - The Guardian
The Australian Weightlifting Federation chief, Michael Keelan, has accused Daniel Koum of demanding A$5,000 (£3,205) to compete at an event where his participation was essential for Australia to win a berth at the London Olympics.
Keelan said he and other team members had been forced to dig into their pockets before the Cameroon-born Koum would compete. Koum said he was "very disappointed" at the allegations.
"I'm very shocked," he told Australian Associated Press. "I've always been competing. I've put all my financial money to represent this country and they're accusing me of [asking for] $5,000?
"With past competitions, I just went to represent Australia in the world championships and it cost me more than $10,000."
Keelan claimed the incident occurred at the Oceania championships in Samoa last week, which doubled as an Olympic qualifier and where the Australia men's team needed a good finish to win a place in London.
Concerned that Koum was not sufficiently motivated to reach his potential in his competition, Keelan offered him a $1,000 incentive, the official told ABC radio.
"You think that everyone who's representing Australia does so with pride and with commitment and, unfortunately, we heard that wasn't the case with Daniel Koum," Keelan said.
"So I personally thought, well, the best way to negate any negatives out of all this would be to, by offering, sort of, some money, whereby he could actually compete and have some incentive to do the total that we asked of him ...
"But then later on, it changed from an agreement to actual demand and he said that he would not lift unless he got $5,000, before he started the warm-up for his own event.
"And then it was pretty frantic ... we had to find that money. And say, within about 30 minutes we handed over the $5,000."
Koum came to Australia to compete at the 2006 Commonwealth Games for Cameroon before becoming a citizen and competing for his adopted country at the 2010 Commonwealths in Delhi.
The Australian Olympic Committee said it had spoken to the AWF and was launching an investigation into the incident.
"The AOC is working with the AWF to investigate the matter," read a statement. "The AOC investigation will be ongoing."
Koum could conceivably yet represent Australia at London 2012 after the AWF nominates its single male entry to the AOC this weekend.
Keelan said he had no regrets about offering the incentive. "(I felt) sick in the guts," Keelan recalled. "I was under duress. We had to make a call very, very quickly. And, you know, the call was that we would submit to his demand."
Olympic Park hotels open for start of London spectacle - The Sun
IHG showed off their flagship Holiday Inn and plush Staybridge Suites located at the epicentre of what will be London’s finest spectacle this summer.
Not only are IHG the Official Hotel Provider to the Olympic and Paralympic Games but they are also tasked with the overseeing of the Olympic village which will be housing 17,000 world class athletes.
Denise Lewis, 39, former British Heptathlete with three Olympic games under her belt attended the launch and described life in the Olympic Village as "daunting". The gold medal winner also gave the thumbs up for the running of the village to be handled by experts in hospitality: "It’s good if someone takes care of you so you can take care of your performance; it needs to feel home from home."
This seems to be the mantra for the Staybridge Suites which aims to be more home than hotel. Rooms are decked out with their own kitchen and they are also the first hotels to be kitted out with Apple TV in the UK so guests can play their music through the television or download movies from iTunes. Already five people have booked a room for a year.
Denise was joined by Great Britain’s leading ribbon gymnast Frankie Jones, 21, to create a special routine for the opening who will be competing on the 9th and 10th August. The ex-Olympian said: "As one of Team GB’s Olympic hopefuls it’s exciting to hear about Frankie’s preparations, coupled with seeing the area come to life. The views from the hotel are incredible and give a sneak preview to guests of the action and excitement to come this summer.”
Not only do the hotels offer spectacular views of the Olympic Park and London skyline but it’s also located right next door to Westfield, Europe’s largest shopping centre complete with a hub of transportation links from Canary Wharf and the O2 Arena to the centre of London.
It's certainly looking like the Olympics have given Stratford the golden touch, let's hope the same can be said of team GB and the likes of Frankie now!
London 2012 - Olympics hits home for Grainger - Yahoo! Eurosport
Even in the current climate of questionable selection policies it would have taken the keenest of imaginations to concoct a scenario where three-time Olympic silver medallist and nigh-on untouchable world No.1 Katherine Grainger could be overlooked for London 2012.
But despite her pre-eminence the Scottish rower admits it is a week which included a brush with the Olympic flame - and the much-expected rubber-stamping of her British spot for London 2012 - that has finally brought home the reality of a home Games.
If the sporting Gods - and the Edinburgh University Boat Club - hadn't intervened, Grainger could have been a fellow martial artist such as Aaron Cook, who has found himself in the middle of an almighty selection row in recent weeks.
Despite being ranked the world's best fighter at -80kg Cook, having been overlooked for selection in favour of Lutalo Muhammad, is most likely facing up to a legal battle to secure his Games participation.
In contrast Grainger's progress has been serene - indeed in the last two years, since an comparatively unsuccessful foray into the world of single sculling in 2009, she and double sculls partner Anna Watkins have barely broken sweat in going through successive seasons unbeaten.
That equilibrium was thrown slightly off course in a rare day off the water when Grainger took her turn with the Olympic flame in Glasgow last Friday.
And, while insistent she's exactly where she wants to be with London 2012 just around the corner, the 36-year-old admitted getting up close and personal with the torch brings with it a sense of trepidation.
Rowing redemption - in the shape of Olympic gold at the fourth time of asking - is Grainger's unequivocal London goal and she said: "It was an emotional moment holding the torch.
"Partly because of the chaos getting to hold it and rushing through the traffic to get there but also partly because when you hold it you think, this is it, this is the flame that's going to light the London Games in a few weeks time.
"It definitely brought the Games very close, a lot of the time when you are training you are away from the spotlight and it is in dark sweaty gyms or on windswept and rain-swept waters.
"So in a way you feel quite detached from the experience of an Olympic Games. We hear about it the whole time on the radio and TV and newspapers but when we go training day-to-day you still feel a little bit away from that.
"And then with a combination of the selection and the torch you suddenly realise that, one you're very much a part of this huge, massive ongoing building experience to what will be this greatest show on Earth and tow that we are now counting it in days.
"We have counted in years for a long time and then it was months, weeks and now it is days so it does feel like we are getting to the end now."
The end - London 2012 - for Grainger will be a career-defining moment regardless of the outcome. After three consecutive Games silvers Grainger has been vocal in her win or bust attitude towards the home Olympics.
And in carrying the torch the 36-year-old admitted she had a moment of clarity - realising just how all-encompassing the Olympics has been on her life.
"The flame and the torch is such a symbol of the Games so to actually be holding that means so much to me and my life," she added.
"London is something that I have been building to for seven years and to be honest the last 15 years of my life has been slightly defined by the Olympic Games.
"Last week was massive with both the official selection, although it wasn't a huge surprise, and carrying the torch.
"It wasn't whether or not we had been picked it's that big milestone that we are now officially part of Team GB.
"Although you know it's been coming for a long time it's the first moment when you know it's definitely going to happen and you're definitely going to be a part of it."
'London 2012 terrorist threat' adverts banned - The Guardian
An advertising campaign by a firm aiming to cash in on the fear of terrorism during the London Olympic games by using images of the 7/7 attacks to sell bomb-blast window film has been banned by the advertising watchdog.
The Advertising Standards Authority described the campaign, which used an image of the bus destroyed in Tavistock Square in the 7 July 2005 bombings, as "wholly inappropriate and shocking" and likely to cause serious offence.
In its ruling the ASA said that the campaign had "exaggerated the potential threat faced by businesses due to the Olympic Games and could have caused undue fear and distress to someone who received the mailing".
The advertising regulator added that the campaign was in breach of the advertising code and banned it.
Used as part of a direct mail campaign by a company called Northgate Solar Controls that aimed to drum up orders for its anti-shatter window film, the 7/7 image was sent to about 4,400 businesses.
Northgate Solar Controls told business owners they may have already been visited by the Metropolitan police or another "government agency" to warn of a "red alert for the Olympic Games".
The campaign talked of a "very real threat" of suicide bombers entering the country more easily because of large numbers of visitors swamping ports of entry and "undetected terrorist sleeper cells" that could launch an attack affecting businesses.
Northgate Solar Controls said that it only targeted businesses in London and the home counties, where most of the Olympic activity is taking place, and that it was not scaremongering but instead wanted to "help minimise the risks in the event of an explosion by the application of bomb-blast film".
However, the business that complained to the Advertising Standards Authority about receiving the direct mail shot was based "almost 50 miles away from the nearest Olympics venue in Essex".
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Expat Experiments in London Fuel Drug Sales in Japan - Bloomberg
Tadasuke Takahashi, a London hair stylist, supplements his income by taking part in medical studies that offer him about $1,000, bento box meals of rice and fish, and Japanese comic books during a 6-night hospital stay.
During his time in London clinics, Takahashi, 33, takes experimental drugs so researchers can determine if his reaction is any different than that of Caucasian volunteers. These overseas tests are part of an effort by Japan’s government and the pharmaceutical industry to speed up approvals in a market where a complex regulatory process had delayed treatments for an aging population for years after U.S. and European clearance.
The changes are now yielding results. They have spurred double-digit growth in sales for Pfizer Inc. (PFE) and GlaxoSmithKline Plc in Japan, as the debt crisis depresses revenue in Europe and growth slows in the U.S.
“It has been a terrific two years for Pfizer Japan, as we have had over 20 submissions” for approval, said Jorge Puente, president of Pfizer’s Asia Pacific and Canada regions, in an interview. The country’s drug regulator “has become flexible, in my experience, and is open to engage in discussions to try to understand the position of the company.”
Demand for diabetes, cancer and dementia treatments is rising in Japan, the world’s most rapidly aging nation with people 65 or older representing 23.3 percent of the population, according to a government report. Growing social acceptance of medical treatment for mental illnesses is also driving sales of depression and schizophrenia drugs, according to market researcher IMS Health Inc., which says Japan will remain the world’s second-largest market behind the U.S. in 2015.
Sales Surge
Revenue at New York-based Pfizer, the market leader, rose 11 percent to 576 billion yen ($7.3 billion) in Japan last year as the overall market grew 6.9 percent, according to IMS. Glaxo’s Japan pharmaceutical sales jumped 28 percent last year, a trend that continued in the most recent quarter ended March. The London-based company recorded the steepest growth in sales last year among the top 20 drugmakers in Japan, IMS said.
Sales there will help drugmakers offset a decline in Europe, whose share of spending on medicines will drop to 19 percent in 2015 from 27 percent in 2005, Danbury, Connecticut- based IMS said. Glaxo’s sales fell 4 percent in the region and were unchanged in the U.S. last year. Pfizer’s European sales dropped 5 percent, while U.S. sales slid 7 percent.
New Rules
Revenue is rising in Japan because the government is trying to get its aging citizens access to the latest treatments as their health declines. Lawmakers implemented a pricing program that pays more for new medicines that offer a significant improvement in patients’ quality of life and health compared with older therapies. In another change, drugmakers can avoid repetition of expensive studies by recruiting expatriates like Takahashi, a native of Nagoya in central Japan, from London to Hawaii, speeding approval times.
“The Japanese government in the last ten years or so has made it so drugmakers now go through a much less onerous process to get approval,” said Jonathan MacQuitty, a Menlo Park, California-based partner at health-care venture capital firm Abingworth. “That has coincided with Asia becoming a more important market, where growth is going to occur.”
Abingworth invests in SFJ Pharmaceuticals Inc., which helps companies including Pfizer introduce drugs in Japan.
Pricing Program
Under a pricing program that began in 2010 and was renewed in April, new medicines that offer a significant benefit to patients over existing treatments may command a price as much as 120 percent higher than those of older drugs, according to Alan Thomas, director of Japan business planning and analytics, for IMS.
Japan’s biennial price-cutting plan also was revised, resulting in more than 400 compounds receiving lower price reductions or being exempted this year under a new set of criteria, Thomas said.
“That system is stimulating the right behavior,” Glaxo (GSK) Chief Executive Officer Andrew Witty said in an interview. “It’s attracting people to bring innovation into the Japanese marketplace.”
Before regulatory reform in Japan, U.S. and European drugmakers conducted the three required phases of clinical trials in Western countries. Once approved in those markets, companies had to repeat the entire process in patients in Japan, creating a “drug lag” and ballooning costs, said Robert DeBenedetto, chief executive officer of San Francisco-based SFJ Pharmaceuticals. That lag was as long as nine years after U.S. and European clearance, IMS said.
‘Drug Lag’
The trials had to be repeated because of concerns about side effects in Japanese, who tend to have lower body weight and may require lower doses than Caucasians, said Colin Vose, who led strategic business development for Japan and South Korea from 1999 to 2005 at Quintiles Transnational Corp., the biggest provider of testing and drug-trial services.
That changed in 1998, when Japan accepted the concept of bridging studies, which pave the way for clinical data gathered in one country to be used in regulatory filings in another. Bridging studies are small trials that observe both healthy Japanese participants and Caucasian subjects to study whether there are any differences in how a drug is processed in the body.
London Trials
Hammersmith Medicines Research, a London hospital center, recruits expatriates like Takahashi, the hair stylist, for bridging studies. Takahashi is monitored for adverse reactions at the hospital while he watches television shows and reads books in his native language.
“I do this two or three times a year,” Takahashi said in an interview. “I know there are risks, but most of these drugs have already been tested in Caucasians, so I’m not too worried.”
If a bridging study shows the drug’s safety is equivalent in both Japanese and Caucasian people, those results can supplement data from trials done in other countries to avoid repeating mid-stage studies in Japan. Late-stage trials are still required to be conducted in Japan for most therapy areas, according to IMS.
“That has allowed us to reduce the regulatory package that is needed and to reduce costs,” said Klaus Beck, head of research and development in Japan for London-based AstraZeneca Plc. (AZN)
Japan’s example may have implications for drugmakers trying to expand in China, whose regulatory guidelines will probably evolve in a similar fashion to its neighbor, according to Quintiles’ Vose.
“One would hope we will have learned by our experiences in remodeling the way we’ve approached Japan,” Vose said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Makiko Kitamura in London at mkitamura1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Phil Serafino at pserafino@bloomberg.net
Expat Experiments in London Fuel Japan Drug Sales Rise
Anti-influenza virus medicine Tamiflu packages and capsules are displayed at a Tokyo pharmacy. Photograph: Yoshikazu Tsuno via AFP/Getty Images
Anti-influenza virus medicine Tamiflu packages and capsules are displayed at a Tokyo pharmacy. Photograph: Yoshikazu Tsuno via AFP/Getty Images
London 2012: Syria's National Olympic Committee Head Could Be Banned From Games - huffingtonpost.co.uk
The head of Syria's national Olympic committee may be banned from attending the London games because of his links to President Bashar Assad.
General Mowaffak Joumaa is expected to be refused entry to the UK because of his connection to the Syrian military, The Guardian reported.
The troubled Middle Eastern state has seen a recent spike in violence by the forces of President Assad's regime.
The Home Office is responsible for carrying out background checks on behalf of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and advises the committee on whether an applicant is suitable for accreditation.
A statement on the Home Office website says: "Accreditation will also not be recommended where an individual's presence at the Games (or in the UK) would not be conducive to the public good."
The Foreign Office is also involved in exclusion decisions, and sources said particular interest would be shown in visitors from countries where there are human rights abuses. Officials are expected to keep a close eye on Syria.
Foreign Secretary William Hague has compared the recent massacres in Syria to those in Bosnia in the 1990s while Prime Minister David Cameron has condemned the killings as "brutal and sickening".
The Syrian charge d'affaires in London has already been expelled in the wake of mounting condemnation of the attacks.
Visas are still being sought for all of the 11 athletes and 20 officials - including coaches - wanting to attend the games on behalf of Syria, whose regime has been condemned by Britain for its crackdown on opponents.
It is thought that the athletes may receive visas because those of Olympic standard are not required to serve in the armed forces, but there is a question mark against General Joumaa and other officials.
General Joumaa has said he will complain to the International Olympic Committee if his visa is denied.
General Joumaa said: "If anyone was blocked because of their military background, that would be unfair. Anyone who has a military background in Syria, they are an ordinary citizen of this country.
"You have seen how much Syria enjoys security and safety. We are a peaceful country. The Syrian people have love in their hearts for the British people."
Last month Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said that no figures associated with atrocities would be allowed into Britain, under new rules preventing entry by people who are not "conducive to the public good".
However, he would not give assurances on specific individuals.
"As far as we are concerned we have recently said very clearly - if you have abused human rights and that is shown to be the case, you can't come into this country," he said.
Asked whether anybody connected to the atrocities in Syria would be blocked from coming for the Olympics, he said: "Of course, what I can't tell you is exactly who those names are."
The decisions on the Syrians are thought to be imminent and showjumper Ahmed Hamsho, 18, is expected to be allowed to compete, The Guardian said.
Hamsho, who has close family ties to the regime of Mr Assad, is the first ever Syrian equestrian to qualify for the Olympics.
A Home Office spokesman said: "We are undertaking stringent checks on all those seeking accreditation.
"This rigorous process has been designed to ensure those working at the Games are fit to do so. We will leave nothing to chance in our aim to deliver a safe and secure Games that London, the UK and the whole world will enjoy."
London Olympics 'to come in £476m under budget' - BBC News
The London Olympics is set to come in under its £9.3bn budget with £476m of the contingency funding left, according to new government figures.
Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt said it was "fantastic news" that the games would be on time and under budget.
Ministers expect to be able to return the remaining money to the Treasury.
The £9.3bn budget, which included a £2bn contingency, was set in 2007 and was almost four times the estimated cost at the time London bid in 2005.
The budget was revised upwards after taking into account previously overlooked costs such as VAT, increased security costs, and an expanded brief for the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) to regenerate the lower Lea Valley area.
Mr Hunt said: "Britain has proved that not only can we put on a great show for the world to watch like we did with the Jubilee but that we can also deliver big construction projects on time and on budget."
Sports Minister Hugh Robertson said the latest figure for the Games, which begin next month, was "a great advert for the British construction industry, for sport and for UK Plc".
Following the success of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and the ongoing Olympic torch relay, additional funding of £19m has been earmarked to bolster crowd control and public information for the games.
The money, which will be allocated from within the £9.3bn budget, will pay for additional stewards and crowd flow measures in central London as well as the "last mile" - what organisers describe as the distance between transport hubs and Games venues.
Mr Robertson said: "We know exactly how many tickets have been sold and roughly how many people should be in London. Absolutely nobody knows how many people are going to turn up.
"London this summer is going to be the place to have a party. It is a great national event. It is very difficult for us to know exactly how many people are going to come across on the train, in the car or on the ferry only for a party."
The government confirmed the work of the ODA, which is responsible for developing and building the venues and infrastructure for the games, is 98% complete.
It will not be fully completed until after the Games when the ODA will convert apartments in the Olympic village into thousands of new homes.
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