THE German swimming federation (DSV) is to consider erasing the six national records that pre-date unification in 1990 because of overwhelming evidence that the former East Germany operated a systematic doping regime.

A panel of experts from the DSV is to be formed to make a decision after similar steps were taken by the German athletics federation (DLV) last year. Given that two of the six records from the East German era that remain on Germany’s books are also European records, international federations will watch with interest.

Neither the IOC nor the sport’s global and European governing bodies (Fina and LEN) has removed a single East German result from its books despite concrete proof that specific swimmers were fed a diet of Oral Turinabol, an anabolic steroid, and testosterone-related products, to enhance their performances. “We believe it is necessary to address this problem and we will liaise with the DLV,” Jürgen Fornoff, the DSV general secretary, said yesterday. However, he hinted that the debate would consider options such as starting the entire record book anew, saying: “Clean records may go with the tainted ones and that would cause a lot of problems.”

The move was triggered by comments made last year by Petra Schneider, the Olympic champion ahead of Sharron Davies, of Great Britain, over 400 metres medley at the 1980 Olympic Games.

She told The Times: “Those records are just records of the past. I would like the current record list to start afresh. My record was influenced by doping. They should reset the list at zero and give the next generation a chance.”

Her views are not shared by Kristin Otto, winner of six gold medals at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, who maintains she did not know she had been doped.

Schneider did not, however, believe it right to hand back her Olympic or world titles, saying: “I worked very hard for those medals. The medals are the only reminder of how hard I worked. It was not all drugs.”

TAINTED RECORDS

400m freestyle: 4min 5.84sec
(Anke Moehring, 1989)

800m freestyle: *8:19.53
(Moehring, 1987)

100m butterfly: 59.00
(Kristin Otto, 1988)

200m medley: 2:11.73
(Ute Geweniger, 1981)

400m medley: 4:36.10
(Petra Schneider, 1982)

4 x 200m freestyle: *7:55.47
(GDR; Manuella Stellmach, Astrid Strauss, Moehring and Heike Friedrich, 1987)

* still European record