FINA...in their grand wisdom, has decided NOT to make Libby Lenton's 52.99 as a world record. This has been reported the the Herald Sun out of Australia.
Once again, FINA shows that it is run by politicans, not swimmers or swimming fans.
So, Thank You FINA for once again screwing things up.
It was a great swim, but had it been counted as a record, it would've had an asterisk in my book.
* drafted off Michael Phelps
Bill:
Your kidding right? I have to disagree with you both about the drafting because it has nothing to do with the rejection of this Record as explained by FINA in the press release. That might be a consideration, but that will never be admitted. There are no FINA rules that prohibit drafting off another swimmer in another lane. In fact, Ducan Armstrong set the 200 Meter Free World Record at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul and he and his Coach Laurie Lawrence admitted that there strategy was to draft off the big waves of Matt Biondi, who was in the next lane and provided a draft for about 170 meters. I saw a replay of this a couple of weeks ago and its obvious that Ducan was swimming on a draft of water that was provided by Biondi and it helped him break the World Record by .19 seconds.
I think the FINA Technical Rules Committee made the call based on the Rules that are written. Its to bad that Libby didn't do this swim in the Women's 400 Free Relay leadoff because they would have counted it. If they allowed this to go thru, this would set a precedent that other swims not defined by the FINA Rules that could count for World Records. I don't think they are denying the World Record because of the type of meet this is because Michael Phelps set a World Record in the 400 IM at this meet in 2003. What they don't want is swimmers setting FINA World Records in events that are not defined by FINA Rules.
It was a great swim, but had it been counted as a record, it would've had an asterisk in my book.
* drafted off Michael Phelps
Bill:
Your kidding right? I have to disagree with you both about the drafting because it has nothing to do with the rejection of this Record as explained by FINA in the press release. That might be a consideration, but that will never be admitted. There are no FINA rules that prohibit drafting off another swimmer in another lane. In fact, Ducan Armstrong set the 200 Meter Free World Record at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul and he and his Coach Laurie Lawrence admitted that there strategy was to draft off the big waves of Matt Biondi, who was in the next lane and provided a draft for about 170 meters. I saw a replay of this a couple of weeks ago and its obvious that Ducan was swimming on a draft of water that was provided by Biondi and it helped him break the World Record by .19 seconds.
I think the FINA Technical Rules Committee made the call based on the Rules that are written. Its to bad that Libby didn't do this swim in the Women's 400 Free Relay leadoff because they would have counted it. If they allowed this to go thru, this would set a precedent that other swims not defined by the FINA Rules that could count for World Records. I don't think they are denying the World Record because of the type of meet this is because Michael Phelps set a World Record in the 400 IM at this meet in 2003. What they don't want is swimmers setting FINA World Records in events that are not defined by FINA Rules.
