‘Unacceptable to have people behaving like monkeys’

The announcer appealed for calm,but just as the whistle was about to go off,somebody in the stands shouted again,leading to Schoeman (lane 3) and Canada’s Simon Burnett (lane 7) jumping ahead of the pack. Schoeman threw up his arms in exasperation. The race was started again and the crowd was again asked to maintain silence before the buzzer.

“It’s an absolute disgrace. There’s a guy in the stands just shouting,shouting,shouting. Somebody like that needs to be ejected,” he told the Australian media after qualifying fifth. “It’s unacceptable to be at a professional event like this and have people going on like monkeys. Someone like that doesn’t deserve to be here.”

Schoeman,the defending champion in this event,was further angered by the behaviour of an attendant after the false start.

“I asked for a towel,they weren’t willing to give me one,” he said. “(Fellow swimmer) Ryan Pini was kind enough to give me one. Then the guy comes up to me and goes ‘Are you ready now?’ Like,do I have an option?

“It’s a joke. It’s an absolute joke this event,” said the Athens Olympics gold medallist.

This was not the isolated case of vocal spectators irking foreign athletes — or,in archery’s case,even the governing body of the sport.

The International Archery Federation (FITA) threatened to stop the competition unless the crowd exercised restraint. “We are ready to stop the (archery) competition if things run out of our hands,” FITA secretary general Tom Dielen said. “All the athletes should be given a fair chance to compete and should not be disturbed at the time they are shooting,” Dielen added.

However,Australia’s coach,Simon Fairweather,himself a world and olympic champion,said it wasn’t an issue.

“It’s FITA’s responsibility to make the crowds more involved and,though it’as not easy,it does add to the atmosphere. It was tough but it also makes it exciting.”

On Thursday,at the boxing competition,the fans booed Pakistan’s Qadir Khan when he walked in to face crowd favourite Akhil Kumar.

After the reports of poor turnout till a couple of days back,it seems the organisers have a new problem at hand: the crowd itself.

(Inputs from Uthra G Chaturvedi)