International Swimming Federation issues warning letter to Mack Horton over Sun Yang protest

The International Swimming Federation issues a formal warning letter to Mack Horton over his protest at Sun Yang’s medal ceremony.

Silver medalist Mack Horton of Australia stands alongside the podium in protest with gold medalist Sun Yang of China and bronze medalist Gabriele Detti of Italy during the medal ceremony.

Swimming Australia has acknowledged the warning letter sent to it and to Mack Horton last night by the International Swimming Federation in the wake of Horton’s protest at Sun Yang’s 400m freestyle victory ceremony at the world titles in South Korea.

After indicating to Australia that no official action would be taken in response to Horton protest on the opening night of the championships, FINA then backtracked yesterday and sent the warning note to Swimming Australia president John Bertrand and chief executive Leigh Russell.

It landed right in the middle of last night’s session of finals, with the Australian team not aware it had been sent until told by an official of another team.

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The warning note, ironically, gives no warnings and makes no threats. All it does is remind the Australians that “while FINA respects the principles of freedom of speech, it has to be conducted in the right context.”

Mack Horton of Australia is seen ahead of a training session on day two of the Gwangju 2019 FINA World Championships in South Korea.

The statement then continues: “As in all major sports organisations, our athletes and their entourages are aware of their responsibilities to respect FINA regulations and not use FINA events to make personal statements or gestures.”

It is difficult to see what purpose the letter serves, although it would at least have convinced China that it had acted as a result of Horton’s one-man protest not just against Sun but also FINA, which permitted the Chinese champion to contest this meet though he is facing a Court of Arbitration for Sport tribunal next month.

The tribunal was called in response to the bombshell revelations in The Sunday Times in January that Sun’s entourage had smashed with a hammer drug-testing samples at a standard drug-testing raid following a drug-testing raid gone wrong.

Given that the Australian team head coach Jacco Verhaeren has already admitted that he had no knowledge that Horton was about to stage his protest on Sunday night, it is difficult to fathom why Swimming Australia has been included in the warning note. The explanation perhaps can be found in the statement released yesterday by Swimming Australia CEO Russell in which she “respects” the position Horton has taken and “understands his sense of frustration”.

That might well signal that Swimming Australia might well share Horton’s frustration over FINA’s own handling of the drawn-out situation. Certainly many high profile swimmers from a number of countries have expressed dismay that Sun has been permitted to compete at this meet under suspicion of a drug infringement which could see him banned from the sport next month.

Swimmer Mack Horton (left) is seen celebrating with teammates after being named in the Australian Team to compete at the World Swimming Championships in South Korea.

The controversy continues to take the spotlight away from what is fast developing into one of the most successful international meets in recent Australian history. On Sunday night, it took the focus away from Ariarne Titmus’ extraordinary victory over American Katie Ledecky in the women’s 400m freestyle final, while last night it proved a massive distraction just as Clyde Lewis unleased one of the greatest 200m freestyles in Australian history.

Last month Lewis entered that event at the Australian world championship selection trials not even figuring on the all-time top 10 list of leading Australian competitors. By the end of the meet, he had worked his way into ninth spot on the list, with a 1min.45.88sec. But yesterday, in one extraordinary swoop, Lewis hacked a second off his career-best time to post the fastest time in the world championship semi-finals, 1min.44.90sec.

That one second, well .98sec, might not seem much but what it means is that Lewis, 21, has dramatically leapfrogged three Olympic champions plus a host of other swimmers, to now rank second on the all-time list. The one man who survived his extraordinary charge was Ian Thorpe, whose top-ranking time of 1min.44.06sec, set when he won gold at the 2001 world championships in Fukuoka, remains intact.

“That was sick,” said Lewis colourfully. “I was out there in lane one by myself.”

Asked whether he could repeat the performance, or even improve on it in tonight’s final, the Dean Boxall-coached training partner of Titmus was philosophical. “I have an open mind. I like to have fun out there. That’s the key for me. I am sure I will have a lot of fun tomorrow night.

While Australia maintained its record of winning a medal in every final it has contested — courtesy of Emma McKeon’s bronze in the 100m butterfly — there were again some exceptional swims from the Dolphins. Minna Atherton lowered her pb by fully .59sec in the 100m backstroke to qualify second fastest for the final, while teammate Kaylee McKeown also made it through to the final.

And Mitch Larkin continued the onslaught by qualifying fifth fastest for the men’s 100m backstroke final in 52.91sec but he will need to produce at least his best, 52.11sec, if he hopes to take out this race, given that China’s Jiayu Xu set the pace in last night’s semis with a 52.17sec swim.