FINA places stamp of approval on controversial times by Uzbekistan’s Olympic qualifiers

The World Swimming Federation’s (FINA) has stunningly given its stamp of approval to the controversially fast times clocked by home swimmers to qualify for Tokyo2020 in the Uzbekistan Open Swimming Championships in Tashkent. It seems to have overlooked a passionate plea by India’s SP Likith to investigate if the times were not manipulated to get the home swimmers to Tokyo2020.

On Sunday, the FINA website updated Aleksey Tarasenko and Adilbek Yusupbaev’s pages, crediting them with 48.55 seconds in 100m Freestyle and 51.71 seconds in 100m Butterfly respectively. Aleksey Tarasenko’s time is said to have come in the heats on the opening day while Adilbek Yusupbaev was clocked in a time trial reportedly held after the heats on the final day.

And this at a time when at least one Uzbek swimmer has reached out to some quarters and admitted they were not aware of the officials plans to secure them Olympic Qualifying Times (A standard) for Tokyo2020. “It was a surprise for all of us. I was not even told. I did not do the cuts,” the swimmer is said to have admitted.

Interestingly, the FINA website shows Adilbek Yusupbaev as having won the 100m Butterfly gold in 51.71 seconds. Now, even the Uzbekistan Swimming Federation’s own website reported that this was obtained in a time trial held after the end of the preliminary programme among three Uzbek swimmers to improve the result.

“As a result, two swimmers – Adylbek Yusupbaev – 51.71 and Eldor Usmonov – 51.83 fulfilled the A standard (51.96) of the Tokyo Olympics, Oybek Khojaev standard B (53.52) with a result of 53.44. In the evening, the final will take place among the top eight athletes according to the results of the preliminary heats,” it reported.

Now, if the times secured by the Uzbek trio in the time trials were taken on board by FINA as being in the final, how could Aleksey Tarasenko – who did not swim the time trials – have finished fourth in the 100m Butterfly final? FINA website also shows that Aleksey Tarasenko clocked 52.51 in finishing fourth in the final. How can someone finish fourth in a three-competitor race?

The start sheet for the 100m Butterfly on April 17 showed Aleksey Tarasenko as the fastest qualifier with a personal best time of 52.02 seconds. The same sheet lists Sajan Prakash as having clocked 52.74 seconds and D Adhithya 53.45 in the heats. And this is where it gets more interesting from an Indian perspective. 

A search on FINA site reveals that the National Record stood in Virdhawal Khade’s name at 52.77 since August 10, 2009. And Sajan Prakash’s best as 53.46 clocked at the National Championships in Thiruvananthapuram on September 21, 2018. If the heats times are upheld, it would mean the Sajan Prakash will have the National Record and Adhithya a Tokyo2020 B Standard.

The entire Indian media had reported that Sajan Prakash won the 100m Butterfly in 53.69 seconds, based on the results sent by Swimming Federation of India representative. Truth to tell, Sajan Prakash’s winning time has not been uploaded on his page yet and it will be interesting to see what time he is credited with. 

There has been an alacrity in showing Likith as having been disqualified in the men’s 200m Breaststroke final – ostensibly for his protest in not diving into the pool after coming under the starter’s orders – but the times clocked by Srihari Nataraj, who broke two National Records in the 50m and 100m Backstroke events in Tashkent, are not yet up on the FINA website. 

Meanwhile, the Uzbekistan Swimming Federation has pointed out that none of the official representatives of Afghanistan, Turkmenistan and India teams had filed any protests or complaints about the timing protocols of the competition provided each day to all teams. In a statement to swimmingworldmagazine.com, it claimed that none of the teams filed a protest with the Chief Referee.

“We assure you that all the participants in the competition used their sports experience and skills, and achieved their best sports results in a hard and fair fight! Otherwise, the representatives of the participating teams would have protested to the Chief Referee on the same day!” the Uzbekistan Swimming Federation said.