Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Barely a whiff of the scandal has reached Switzerland, but it’s top of the news in India this week, and UK media have been following it with interest: the former head of the Commonwealth Games in Delhi (CWG) in October 2010, Suresh Kalmadi, was arrested Monday 25 April and appeared in court Tuesday, charged, according to India’s Central Bureau of Investigation with “conspiracy to cause favour to a private firm based in Switzerland in awarding the contract for Timing, Scoring & Result system at an inflated cost of Rs. 141 crore [ed. note: CHF27.7 million].
Kalmadi is the third top official to be arrested since March in connection with the investigation.
A lawyer was arrested for throwing a slipper at Kalmadi as he arrived at court Tuesday.
Wednesday, Indian media report that the Indian Olympic Association have replaced him as president (the IOC in Lausanne has not yet confirmed the information).
The company in question, while not named by the court, is clearly Swiss Timing, based in Corgémont, canton Bern, which is owned by the Swatch Group. The scandal has been whipped up by the Indian press for months, but reached a new peak this week, implying in passing that Swiss Timing might be accused of wrongdoing, and even the Associated Press expressed confusion, saying in reports published Tuesday that “it was not immediately clear if Swiss Timing was also accused of alleged wrongdoing.” The sentence was later dropped from updates, but the older version is still available from several of AP’s client news outlets.
Swatch Group, in a press release issued 26 April, vehemently denies the Indian media reports and clarifies the financial situation, which has been the source of much confusion in the Indian press.
The CWG were pursued by charges of corruption months before the Games took place:
Swatch Group vehemently denies Indian media rumours
Beatrice Howald, press spokesperson for Swatch, told GenevaLunch Wednesday that the company has not been contacted or accused by Indian authorities of any illegal activities, nor has it been able to obtain any information in response to its efforts to determine if there were problems with the contract bid process.
“Swiss Timing would have had nothing to gain by this,” she points out, qualifying the company’s reputation in the field of sports events timing as “excellent”.
Swiss Timing was responsible for timing and scoring at the Games. A second company, India-based Gem International, may have been involved in obtaining the contract, but the process now under investigation by a court in Delhi, appears murky.
Swiss Timing has long history of timing top world sports events
Swiss Timing is one of the world’s top sports events timekeepers:
Melbourne, Australia (GenevaLunch) - Australia and Sebastian Vettel combined to offer Formula 1 fans a season opener Sunday 27 March to whet the appetite for more. Red Bull’s Vettel set out in style to defend his world champion title, finishing 22.2s ahead of MacLaren’s Lewis Hamilton whose KERS-assisted rush in the pair’s drag race to the first corner was the only real challenge to Vettel. The German’s stellar performance contrasted with the German lineup for Mercedes, where Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg both had accidents and were out.
The F1 now moves on to Malaysia for the next race, 10 April.
Links to other sites: F1 season calendar, F1, Grand Prix Australia, how your team fared
Melbourne, Australia (GenevaLunch) – Swiss hopes for an Australian Open win have been doubly dashed, after Roger Federer’s loss Thursday 27 January to Novak Djokovic, 7-6, 7-5, 6-4, in a match where Federer fell short of the superb performance he put in two days earlier in defeating countryman Stan Wawrinka.
Three straight sets, exactly three hours, and Djokovic knocked Federer out at the same stage as he did last year at the US Open.
International sports, tennis
Ouf! as Swiss player fends off tough Frenchman Simon
Melbourne, Australia (GenevaLunch) – Fans of Roger Federer watched with trepidation as their hero slipped past French player Gilles Simon in a match that saw the Basel player strong, then soft and finally a winner against a determined Simon.
Final score in Federer’s favour: 6-2 6-3 4-6 4-6 6-3. I hope I never have to play him again,” Federer said to reporters after the three hour 13 minute match.
Melbourne, Australia (GenevaLunch) - Roger Federer was in fine form as he brushed aside the local favourite Leyton Hewitt 6-2, 6-3, 6-4 to enter the quarter-finals of the Australian Open Monday 25 January. Federer was in complete control throughout, dropping serve only once, in the third set, and then coming back immedately to beat Hewitt for the 15th time in succession.
Federer will next face Nikolay Davydenko, who beat Fernando Verdasco in a tough five-setter 6-2, 7-5, 4-6, 6-7, 6-3. Davydenko beat Federer in their last two matches, after a long string of losses against the Swiss star.
First reports are optimistic for two conjoined girls who were separated by a medical team in Melbourne, Australia during 27 hours of surgery. Krishna and Trishna, orphans from Bangladesh who were joined at the head, are doing well, although lead doctor Leo Donnan says they have a long road ahead of them, with risks related to recovering from the surgery but also a 50 percent chance of brain damage and 25 percent chance one of them will die. The girls are 2 years 11 months old. They were living at an orphanage in Bangladesh, where the risk of surgery was considered too great by the organization Children First Foundation, which is helping the girls.
Links to other sites: The Age, Melbourne (video), Times, UK, Royal Children’s Hospital page on the twins’ “incredible journey”
Police in Melbourne, Australia swooped on 19 properties around the city and arrested four men they say were plotting to storm Holsworthy army base northwest of Sydney with automatic weapons and kill as many soldiers as possible until they themselves were killed. The men, Australian nationals of Somali and Lebanese origin, are believed to be linked to militant Islamist group Al-Shabaab in Somalia, which is battling the Western-backed government. More than 400 police officers were involved in the early Tuesday 4 August operation. One of the men, Nayef El Sayed, aged 25, appeared in court and has been charged with terrorism offenses. A fifth man, arrested earlier for other reasons, was still being questioned. CNN, Sydney Morning Herald
Melbourne, Australia (GenevaLunch) - The newly formed Brawn GP team, sponsored by Richard Branson’s Virgin, made a perfect start to the season when Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello took the first two places in their debut race: the first team to do so since Mercedes-Benz in 1954.
There are no official numbers yet, but at least 209 people are known to have died in Australia’s wildfires. The country Sunday mourned the victims in a series of church, prayer and wreath-laying services. Officials are warning residents of towns east of Melbourne to consider evacuating the area, with bushfires continuing the burn and another heat wave on the way. ABC (Australia), CNN
ABC television in Australia reports that with 166 people known to be dead, worse is yet to come in the fire that now appears to be the worst bushfire in the world in 150 years. Fires are still not contained in many areas, including close to Melbourne, says Victoria Premier John Brumby.
Melbourne, Australia (GenevaLunch) - Rafael Nadal justified his number one ranking and ended, at least for a while, Roger Federer’s dream of matching Pete Sampras’s record of 14 Grand Slam victories. Despite his epic five-hour semi-final match two days earlier Nadal ended looking fresher and fitter than Federer at the end of another five-set thriller.
Updated 1 Feb 08:45 Melbourne, Australia (GenevaLunch) – Roger Federer (TSR interview, Fre) and Rafael Nadal face each other in the finals Sunday morning at 09:30 (Swiss time) after Nadal beat number 15 Fernando Verdasco in a very tough five-set match that many sports reporters worldwide are calling “epic”: 6-7 6-4 7-6 6-7 6-4. Meanwhile, in the women’s final Serena Williams crushed Dinara Safina 6-0 6-3 in one of the shortest and most one-sided finals for decades. The win meant that Serena moved to first place in the world rankings.
Updated 15:00 Melbourne, Australia (GenevaLunch) – Roger Federer defeated Andy Roddick smoothly, 6-2 7-5 7-5. Serena Williams and Dinara Safina will play in the women’s final in Australia. Rafael Nadal and Ferdinand Verdasco move up to the semi-finals. Australian Open site
Melbourne, Australia (GenevaLunch) – South Africa made a formality of the last day’s play as they won by nine wickets and sealed their first series win in Australia. If they take the third and final test it will also depose Australia from their long-held position as top-ranked cricket nation.
