2019 FINA WORLD AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS
- All sports: Friday, July 12 – Sunday, July 28, 2019
- Pool swimming: Sunday, July 21 – Sunday, July 28, 2019
- The Nambu University Municipal Aquatics Center, Gwangju, Korea
- Meet site
- Competition Schedule
- FinaTV Live Stream
- Entry Lists
- Results
One of the wackiest days of World Championship swimming in recent memory got a little crazier during the opening event of finals, as Danas Rapsys was disqualified in the men’s 200 freestyle after initially touching first to win the gold medal.
Rapsys charged home on the final 50, moving past Sun Yang to (appear to) claim the victory in a time of 1:44.69.
However, just moments after the finish, it was revealed that the Lithuanian had been disqualified.
The official call was for ‘movement on the blocks’, as he appeared. to move during the starter’s ‘take your marks’ call:
Momento da desclassificação do lituano Rapsys.#NatacaoNoSportTV pic.twitter.com/MEOruRa7wU
— Olympic Esporte (@OlympicEsporte) July 23, 2019
Rapsys holds Lithuania’s National Record at 1:45.12, and if the disqualification hadn’t happened he would have moved up from 15th to eighth on the all-time performer’s list.
After the DQ, Sun gets bumped up to gold in a time of 1:44.93, and Katsuhiro Matsumoto (1:45.22) of Japan gets the silver. Martin Malyutin of Russia and Duncan Scott of Great Britain, who initially appeared to tie for fourth, end up getting on the podium with a joint bronze in 1:45.63.
In fifth, Filippo Megli reset the Italian Record once again in 1:45.67.
They all jumped at the same time. This “twitch” is pure BS. He did not jump before the others, or moved backwards to gain momentum.
barely even a flinch, shouldn’t have been DQ’d
Every official I’ve spoken to agrees that it was a DQ.
How many of these officials have been at this very event?
Audience was way too loud and officials did not ensure proper start conditions. Then ref initiated the procedure, and due to the noise, did not give a start in time. Gap between “take your marks” and the start was too long. Starter should have cancelled the start and initiate a new one. You can’t stall after you call “take your marks”.
In this case, starter took too long after “take your marks”, and should have called “stand please”, as he had time after Repsys movement.
Honestly FINA has a problem with such a “twitch” of Rapsys on the start, but have no problem with Sun Yang smashing his blood samples. Seriously, this is crazy. I don’t really care who won, as long as it’s an honest victory.
Sun Yang wins a Gold medal when someone gets DQ’d for breaking a rule. Just a little ironic.
It’s a false start, no doubt, but also very unfortunate to Rapsys as he swimmed well enough to be top two. About Sun Yang, his case has been different from those tested positive before or during competitions. The court hearing was about sample collection without proper ID, and the issue was soon resolved and samples were taken afterwards when proper ID was presented. There were hundreads of tests done for each top athlet, and FINA might find nothing about Sun. Comments should be fair and accurate, though I understand that many try to discredit others based on partial information or self interests.
Clearly a false start, no question
You’re the kind of guy that thinks OJ didn’t do it because the glove didn’t fit, huh?
There was this guy named Lance Armstrong who passed a bunch of drug tests…