Games doctor carpeted

By TERRY MADDAFORD

Helping himself to a New Zealand uniform and marching in the opening ceremony at the Manchester Commonwealth Games cost Dr Andy Stewart his village accreditation.

Scots-born Dr Stewart, a doctor of sports science and manager of the high-performance programme at North Shore's Millennium Institute of Sport and Health, had overstepped the mark, said team chef de mission Dave Currie.

He was keen to downplay the incident yesterday but admitted he had been "unimpressed" by Dr Stewart's behaviour. "He had been to enough Games to know the ropes," said Mr Currie.

"He was one of the peripheral people attached to the team. As such, he was entitled to a couple of T-shirts, but when he went to collect them he convinced the outfitting people he was entitled to the full uniform, including a shirt and casual jacket."

Dr Stewart said yesterday that he had "ended up" with a pass which he thought entitled him to march.

"It was a naive mistake on my part. If I had realised the implications, I would not have done it."

After the march, Mr Currie withdrew Dr Stewart's village accreditation but stopped short of stripping him of his accreditation altogether.

In his role with the swim team, Dr Stewart took post-race lactate readings, which were part of the information handed on to coaching staff.

Full coverage:
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