Baseball Backs Anti-Doping Advances; Curling, Bobsleigh Updates

Baseball Backs Anti-Doping Advances

Co-President Riccardo Fraccari tells Around the Rings the World Baseball Softball Confederation is "very pleased" with Major League Baseball’s expanded anti-doping program – and its warm embrace from WADA.

MLB and the MLB Players Association announced last week the introduction of in-season blood testing for human growth hormone (HGH) ahead of the 2013 season.

"This is a good day for baseball," MLB Commissioner Bud Selig said in a statement.

The agreement also provides for a WADA-accredited laboratory in Montreal to maintain baseline testosterone levels and other data in an effort to further detect drug use among players.

"An anti-doping program can only be considered effective when it is allowed to monitor players the whole year round," said WADA director general David Howman, "and by making these changes the MLB has set a new standard for the other pro leagues to follow."

Asked how the new policies will impact baseball and softball’s joint Olympics bid, Fraccari acknowledgs doping as "a weak point" of the past and says efforts to clean up the sport are "only one part" of the value proposition WBSC offers the Games.

"We listened and learned from the Olympic Movement in order to address this issue," he tells ATR.

"We have worked closely with our partners from all the professional baseball leagues to achieve WADA compliance, and we are particularly proud of the leadership that MLB has shown on this critical issue in recent years."

Baseball and softball are competing against karate, roller sports, wushu, sport climbing, squash as well as wakeboard for what will likely be only one open spot on the program of the 2020 Olympics.

Canada, U.S. Top Curling World

U.S. and Canada reclaim bragging rights after winning the World Financial Group Continental Cup, curling’s annual battle of North America versus everyone else.

Four teams from Canada and two from the U.S. outplayed squads from Switzerland, Norway as well as two apiece from Sweden and Scotland by a score of 37-23 over the weekend in Penticton, Canada.

Competition across five disciplines – team games, mixed doubles, singles, mixed Skins and skins – in four days determined the winner.

North America now holds the all-time edge 5-4 with the two sides alternating every edition to date.

Russia, Germany Atop Bobsleigh Standings

Germans sit first and third in the standings of bobsleigh’s showcase four-man event with just one World Cup remaining before the 2013 FIBT World Championships.

After finishing second Sunday in Koenigssee, Germany, the sled piloted by Maximilian Arndt totals 1,349 points, only 14 more than Alexsandr Zubkov of Russia, who now counts 1,334 points.

Manuel Machata of Germany, who finished fourth in Koenigssee, rounds out the top three with 1,266 points.

After next weekend’s World Cup in Innsbruck and Igls, sliders head to St. Moritz for the FIBT World Championships from Jan. 21 to Feb. 3.

Written by Matthew Grayson

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