Olympic champ Meilutyte tight-lipped over Efimova doping

Olympic 100m breaststroke champion Ruta Meilutyte was staying tight-lipped about her defeat to Russia's Yuliya Efimova at the world championships, despite having previously been outspoken about her rival's doping past.

Efimova, 23, only completed her 16-month ban in March after being caught with traces of a banned steroid in her system in October 2013.

At the world championships in Kazan, the Russian clocked one minute, 05.66 secs to win Tuesday's 100m final as Meilutyte had to settle for silver at 0.70secs back.

The rivals had been friends before Efimova's ban, but Plymouth-based Meilutyte, who races for Lithuania, said she no longer saw the Russian as "an honest competitor" in a BBC interview last April.

The 18-year-old Meilutyte did not attend Tuesday's press conference after Efimova's victory and declined to answer any questions relating to the Russian's doping past when she spoke to reporters on Wednesday.

"I'd like to not answer questions which aren't related to me and my team," she said when asked how she felt to lose to Efimova so soon after the Russian's ban.

"It's for the best, I guess.

"The reason I didn't come to the press conference was because they told me to wait for Yuliya to finish her press conference, but it took longer than they said it would.
"I needed to cool down and go to a doping test. So I decided to go, because I have a 50m to focus on and I couldn't afford to wait."

The rivals will resume their battle in Saturday's 50m breaststroke heats with the final on Sunday night in the final session of the championships and Meilutyte said she had let the occasion get to her in the 100m final.

"It was a pretty intense final, emotionally and physically. Maybe I got too excited and didn't finish as well as I was expecting, but I'm quite happy with it and it's a learning experience," she said.

"There's a bit of tension going on between the girls, everyone wants to do really well, with one of the top girls being Russian and this being held in Russia, the crowd were going crazy and it was quite overwhelming.

"I consider my time to be quite slow to be honest. I've done 1:05 minutes quite a few times this year already without any rest and in worse shape than I am in now, so that was strange."

The opening ceremony for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro will be held on August 5 and with exactly one year to go, Meilutyte is relishing the prospect of defending the 100m title she won as a 15-year-old.

"It's crazy to think there is only one year left and the first three have gone so quickly," she said.

"I am very excited and I just can't wait for the Rio Olympics."
Source: AFP