Swimming: US threaten action over relay drama

FUKUOKA - The United States team are threatening to take the world governing body to court after Fina refused to study evidence that could prove their relay team was incorrectly stripped of a world championship gold medal.

US national swimming director Dennis Pursley said last night they were considering taking their case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport after Britain were awarded the gold in the women's 4x200m relay when the two fastest teams, Australia and the US, were disqualified yesterday.

The Americans were disqualified because their second swimmer Cristina Teuscher left her block too early.

"The official video clearly shows we were in compliance with the rules," Pursley said. "We have been told our only recourse now is to appeal to CAS and we are considering it."

Australia were disqualified from the final when one of their swimmers, Petria Thomas, jumped into the pool to celebrate before the last team, Italy, had finished the race, breaking a well-known rule that incurs an automatic disqualification.

The Australians appealed to Fina saying they had been told to jump in by an official poolside photographer and that the infringement had not affected the placings, but their protest was rejected.

"As far as we're concerned we didn't cheat. We know we won the race fair and square, even if we don't have the medal to show for it," Australian swimmer Giaan Rooney said.

The US protested that the touchpad at the end of the lane had been faulty and the team were initially reinstated yesterday, which would have made them champions.

Fina was unable to hear their appeals immediately because some of senior officials had left the pool early, so the matter was left unresolved overnight. The medal ceremony was cancelled and an hour later, when the crowd had left, technicians arrived at the pool to replace the offending touchpad.

FINA's jury of appeal eventually heard the case yesterday morning, taking around two hours to throw out the Australian and US protests.

"The Jury of Appeal found that the time system worked perfectly during this race."

Pursley said the official video clearly showed there was no infringement by the American team and he was outraged that Fina had refused to look at the film because they were satisfied the timing had worked.

While the Australians and Americans were fuming over their disqualifications, the British team were revelling in their unexpected success. It is 26 years since it last had a world champion, breaststroker David Wilkie.

New Zealand's Dean Kent missed out on a place in the final of the 200m individual medley when he finished 11th in the semis in a time of 2m 02.85s, a national record. The previous record, 2m 03.11s, was set by Kent just the day before.

- NZPA