Olympics 2021: Uzbekistan loses appeal against Fina ruling to strike out results

A nation accused of “nefarious behaviour” in manipulating Olympic qualifying timing and results has had its appeal against a Fina ruling struck out. WATCH

An appeal against a Fina ruling over doctored times has been thrown out by the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Picture: AAP

Uzbekistan swimming officials were involved in “nefarious behaviour” in trying to qualify a handful of swimmers for the Tokyo Olympics, manipulating timing and results of two Uzbek events, the world swimming body Fina said.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport on Monday ruled the Uzbekistan appeal against Fina, which had not to recognised some of the nation’s swimming results, has been rejected.

Kayo is your ticket to the best local and international sport streaming Live & On-Demand. New to Kayo? Try 14-days free now >

Fina has already removed the suspect swims from its official results and further sanctions are to be imposed against officials involved in the scams, which occurred at the Uzbekistan Open Swimming Cup in November 2020 and the Uzbekistan Open in April this year.

A whistleblower, Indian breaststroker Selvaraj Prema Likith was outraged at the blatant cheating when he attended one of the meets, the Uzbekistan Open in April this year.

Mr Likith posted a lengthy video of the timing issues and during one of his races he stood on the blocks and refused to race in protest. He also said officials tried to bribe him to keep quiet.

In the video Mr Likith, 22, said: “at this competition it was quite sad and heartbreaking to see a lot of manipulation of the times in favour of the Uzbekistan swimmers as officials turned off the scoreboard and didn’t tell swimmers their times”.

Mr Likith presented to FINA video evidence of Uzbek times being enhanced so that the swimmers qualified automatic A times.

Fina said in a statement “any attempt to manipulate results will be punished according to to FINA rules. Put simply, FINA will not stand for any forms of cheating or event manipulation.”

THE TEENAGER READY TO DETHRONE KING KYLE

—Todd Balym

Meet the 16-year-old Romanian kid who could shock the world and dethrone Australia’s own reigning Olympic champion King Kyle Chalmers at the Tokyo Games.

David Popovici is the newest sprint sensation in world swimming who, just two weeks out from the Tokyo Games, has rocketed to fastest man in 2021 with a scorching 47.30 seconds 100m freestyle victory at the European Junior Championships in Rome.

He is the 10th fastest man all time and his time is faster than anything Chalmers has swum this year and would’ve won gold at the last Olympic Games in Rio in 2016.

David Popovici is a real gold medal threat in Tokyo.

It was a swim that immediately caught the attention of the Australian swim team who are locked in camp in Cairns ahead of their departure for the Olympics next week.

“Yeah, there was a little bit of talk about it, we were all a little bit surprised he swam so fast,” said Dolphins team coach Michael Bohl.

“Obviously the shot across the bow was the 47.5s relay lead off a day or two ago, everyone thought that was fantastic, but to go one step further now and go in ranked number one is a bit of a surprise.

“Nothing really surprises me at the Olympic level … Kyle did that last time, didn’t he. He was two years older, he was 18 at the last Olympics but the year before he was only a relay swimmer in Kazan at the world championships.

“So he went from 12 months before Rio being a relay swimmer to Olympic gold medallist. So a lot can happen.

“This boy has improved at a great rate of knots, but I’m sure there is going to be another couple out there that really spring a surprise at the Olympics.”

The 16-year-old has ‘improved at a rate of knots’.

Popovici has dropped two seconds off his best time since December last year and his swim was almost one second faster than his 48.08s time at the European championships in May.

And the kid is confident he can go faster in Tokyo.

“I am excited because of today’s result,” Popovici said.

“I knew I was able to swim a time like this. This also confirms that I am training well for Tokyo. I am not going to stop here. I am aiming for the Olympic podium.”

While Popovici’s time is the best this year, he will need to go faster to match Chalmers and world champ Caeleb Dressell.

Dressell is the only man in the field to have broken 47 seconds while Chalmers is not far behind and has the added advantage of knowing how to win Olympic gold when the medal is on the line.

Chalmers had the benefit of arriving in Rio as the underdog, with no pressure or expectation on his shoulders.

Kyle Chalmers in training on the Gold Coast ahead of his Tokyo departure.

The South Australian superfish won’t be favourite in Tokyo and perhaps now it will be the Romanian who has to handle the spotlight.

“Everything is dialled back to zero once those heats start,” Bohl said.

“Everyone has to swim fast through the heats, through the semis and into the final. He has certainly put himself in the picture there is no doubt about that but you know doing it under pressure is another thing

“Doing it when the big fish are around is going to be the challenge for everyone there.”

Originally published as Olympics 2021: Uzbekistan loses appeal against Fina ruling to strike out results