Swimming

The Brazilian authorities stopped Gunnar Bentz and Jack Conger from boarding the flight at Rio de Janeiro airport, bound for the US, for questioning late on Wednesday.

Two teammates - Ryan Lochte and James Feigen - were barred from leaving the country, but Lochte had already left.

Police have queried their accounts of a robbery they reported in Rio on Sunday.

The four swimmers said they had been robbed at gunpoint in a taxi in Rio.

But police said their account of when they arrived at the Olympic Village did not square with CCTV recordings.

The quartet of Allison Schmitt, Leah Smith, Maya Dirado and Ledecky won in a time of seven minutes 43.03 seconds, with Australia second and Canada third.

America trailed Australia but Ledecky, the 200m and 400m freestyle champion, overtook Tamsin Cook on the last leg.

Ledecky, 19, has now won four Olympic gold medals during her career.

FINA has accused them of showing “disrespect” for their requirements by providing substandard facilities and failing to act on warnings about the hazardous nature of the open water swimning venue at Copacabana beach and nearby open-air venues for diving, water polo and synchronised swimming.

In a letter seen by Associated Press, the FINA President, Julio Maglione, has complained to the Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes about a range of issues.

Carlo in his report to the Pacific Games Council (PGC) Annual General Meeting in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea yesterday said swimming one of the major attractions at any Pacific or Oceania meet is not on the programme.

“We had discussions with the Pacific Games Council executives on deleting swimming, there’s also a big question mark on  weightlifting because you know the small countries would like to have weightlifting because its their medal winning event.”