The minutes from FINA’s appeal jury show a unanimous vote upholding the disqualification of would-be world champ Danas Rapsys.
Rapsys touched first in the men’s 200 free final, but was disqualified. His Lithuanian swimming federation protested the DQ, then appealed when the protest was rejected by officials. The federation continued to disagree with FINA’s call even after the appeal was rejected.
You can read more (and see the full paper trail of protest documents) in our story from yesterday here. Ultimately, the Lithuanian federation doesn’t dispute that Rapsys moved on the starting blocks, but argued that (1) there was excessive crowd noise at the time and (2) the disqualification process didn’t follow proper protocols, as officials didn’t fill out the proper form when Lithuania protested.
The minutes of the jury appeal from FINA lists the officials present for the vote, and explains both Lithuania’s case and FINA’s rationale in upholding the DQ.
FINA sides with officials, who say there wasn’t enough crowd noise to warrant having the swimmers stand back up on the blocks. The jury appeal also mentions the fact (not in dispute) that Rapsys moved on the starting blocks, and rejects the Lithuanian federation’s claim that the officials didn’t follow proper protocols in rejecting their protest.
The second contention point from the Lithuanian Federation is an “old and improper way” of interpretation of rules. When an infraction is observed by SR and independently observed and confirm by DR then is valid. The lack of “on time paperwork” doesn’t negate the infraction or DQ. It’s what we call nowadays a days a “SCRIBE ISSUE”. That goes to any DQ, an error on the DQ slip should not overturn any call made by officials. When that happens CJ just re-do a new DQ slip