Coundown to Beijing

141 Days until Opening Ceremonies

AUSSIES GET TOUGH

High-ranking Australian government officials have claimed their nation will have the most rigorous anti-doping program leading up to the Olympics and nobody -- not even the notoriously tough U.S. Anti-Doping Agency -- is in any position to argue.

Not only will the Aussies implement extensive blood and urine testing and store their Olympians' samples for future testing, but Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority officials are also examining prospective athletes' medical records to ensure they have not been improperly prescribed any performance-enhancing drugs. The acknowledgment that ASADA is probing the records in the federal government's national Medicare system has been highly controversial, but ASADA argues that it was created with the right to share information with Australian customs, police and other government organizations.

SWIMMING MARK

The Netherlands set a world record in the women's 400-meter freestyle relay at the European swimming championships in Eindhoven, Netherlands, with a time of 3 minutes 33.62 seconds. The Dutch team of Inge Dekker, Ranomi Kromowidjojo, Femke Heemskerk and Marleen Veldhuis led throughout in front of a raucous home crowd, easily beating the old mark of 3:35.22 set two years ago by Germany. Italy was second in 3:41.06, and Sweden was third in 3:41.28.

CALENDAR

Date	Event (Site)
Tomorrow and Sunday	Soccer -- men's qualifying tournament semifinals and final (Nashville)
April 2-13	Soccer -- women's qualifying (Mexico)
April 5	Soccer -- Taekwondo -- final fight-offs (Des Moines)
April 16-20	Diving -- Spring nationals (Minneapolis)
April 19	Triathlon -- U.S. trials (Tuscaloosa, Ala.)
April 20	Marathon -- U.S. women's trials (Boston)

-- Amy Shipley