Bubka blasts dangerous’ conditions

Asked who would win, he said: “Whoever lives will see who wins.”

Ticket godfather thrown out

AN American known as the “Godfather of ticket scalping” has been deported from Australia just hours after getting here.

Douglas Weinstein was intercepted by immigration officials early on Wednesday when he arrived on a flight from Los Angeles, The Australian

newspaper said.

With a criminal record spanning four decades, he was puton the next plane out. The paper said authorities had been warned about him by overseas law enforcement agencies.

Weinstein is said to have a record for ticket touting and counterfeiting dating back to the early 1960s and is known to have frequented the Montreal, Los Angeles and Atlanta Olympics.

According to the paper, he initially claimed to have no previous criminal convictions but confessed after being questioned by immigration officers.

Weinsten was one of about 145,000 people listed on the Immigration Department’s Movemment Alert List — a database combining Australian and overseas intelligence.

The government claimed they represented a security concern but has relaxed conditions of entry for up to 40 Olympic visitors who would normally be barred from entering Australia.

There are still more than one million tickets available to Olympic events, worth more than $110 million at the box-office.

Focus on Water Police

FORGET swimming sensation Ian Thorpe. The fastest waterborne Australians at the Olympics will be Sydney’s Water Police. A unit of 24 specially trained officers — known here as Water Rats – riding high-powered jet skis will patrol Sydney’s landmark harbour during the games, the unit’s co-ordinator said on Thursday.

The Olympic Marine Police Station, based on a peninsula close to the Homebush Bay Olympic site, is equipped with eight Yamaha 1,200cc personal water craft capable of a top speed of 80 kph. The fast-response team will monitor the harbour foreshore and Olympic venues on the harbour.

“The jet skis will be used at all our marine venues, including the sailing course, the Olympic marina at Rushcutters Bay, and the triathlon course,” said Inspector Adam Taylor, the team’s co-ordinator.

Sydney authorities also have a waterborne ambulance, borrowed from New Zealand, to carry casualties around Sydney’s harbour.

The nine-metre vessel will have a paramedic on board and can carry two people on stretchers.