Another Timing Malfunction in Glasgow Leads to Results Adjustments

Deja vu all over again: for the 2nd time in a year, the results for a major meet at the Tollcross International Swimming Center have been adjusted because of a timing error.

Last year, the error impacted 9 heats at the European Aquatics Championships in the same pool, but became very controversial because one of those heats was the final of the men’s 100 breaststroke where Adam Peaty swam a World Record of 57.00, which was then adjusted to 57.10. That new time, still faster than the old World Record, was eventually ratified by FINA.

This time, specifically the results of the 50 meter races in the first 3 sessions of the meet have been adjusted to be .10 seconds slower. Last year, the issue was reported to be a problem with an “incorrect configuration” of “the starting mechanism.” The 50 meter races start on the opposite end of the pool from the rest of the meet, with a different set of blocks and starting pads.

Peaty expressed his displeasure with the issues in a Tweet, saying “Happens once then it’s a simple mistake but when it happens twice it just becomes infuriating for the athletes.” Peaty’s prelims time of 26.51 now becomes 26.61, though his finals time of 26.49 is unaffected.

Happens once then it’s a simple mistake but when it happens twice it just becomes infuriating for the athletes. https://t.co/Xc2ZfpBJo0

— Adam Peaty OBE (@adam_peaty) April 18, 2019

Questions about the swims were first raised after the 50s when there were reaction times being recorded sub .50 seconds with a clocking as fast as .37 in the women’s 50 breaststroke). That’s faster than anybody has been able to legitimately clear the blocks off a flat start.

Races that are impacted:

• women’s 50 breaststroke prelims
• men’s 50 backstroke prelims
• women’s 50 breaststroke finals
• men’s 50 backstroke finals
• men’s 50 breaststroke prelims
• women’s 50 fly finals

The 50 meter events, aside from freestyle, are not direct selection events to the World Championships by the UK’s selection procedures.

Update:

British Swimming has released the following statement, saying that they are “extremely disappointed to find ourselves in this position,’ but that they “are pleased that this issue was resolved before the evening session on day 2 of the championships.” They also say that they are confident that there will be no further issues.

Full statement is below:

During the morning competition session on Wednesday 17th April British Swimming became aware of a potential technical problem that was affecting 50m races in the opening three sessions.

Since the error was identified 24 hours ago we have been able to run extensive tests and reanalyse all race results. A thorough investigation showed that this issue has only affected times recorded in the 50m races during the sessions on Tuesday, and on Wednesday morning.

Having carried out extensive tests to confirm the technical problem and with the benefit of the necessary expert technical analysis, we can confirm that all 50m times from sessions one, two and three were reported as 0.10 seconds faster than they were, and have been revised accordingly.

Whilst we are extremely disappointed to find ourselves in this position, we are pleased that this issue was able to be resolved before the evening session on day two of the championships, and we are confident that there will be no further issues during the championships.  We shall be working with our partners to carry out a full review of technical infrastructure ahead of our future events.