The International Swimming League overturned Tomoe Hvas’ 200 individual medley disqualification, putting LA Current’s new point total for Match 8 ahead of the Tokyo Frog Kings.
During Day 1 of Match 8, officials disqualified Hvas and his teammate, Abrahm DeVine. Hvas was disqualified for kicking beyond the 15-meter limit, and the Current’s performance which netted a four point loss and three jackpot points for the race champions, the London Roar. With the new results, Hvas earned seven points by scoring second, giving the Current a new Day 1 point total of 189 compared to 180. DeVine’s disqualification still stands, and Tokyo’s score dropped from 182 to 180.
UPDATED SCORES AFTER MATCH 8, DAY 1
- Energy Standard: 281.0
- London Roar: 256.0
- LA Current: 189.0
- Tokyo Frog Kings: 180.0
The disqualification was overturned Sunday by an Italian Swimming Federation appeal board, whose present members consisted of Luca Piscopo, Massimo Gomez, and Walter Bolognani. The ISL did not use the video review system first announced during Season 2, which is currently only allowed for start and relay exchange reviews, according to the ISL.
This season, disqualifications for underwater kicking past the 15-meter mark in freestyle, backstroke, and butterfly have been relatively rare. There is no rule for going past the 15-meter mark in breaststroke.
On Day 2 of Match 6, Coleman Stewart of the Cali Condors was disqualified for kicking beyond the 15-meter mark in the 100 meter backstroke. Other violations have been missed. LA Current’s Tom Shields kicked beyond the 15 meters during the Match 5, the clearest missed violation SwimSwam has noted thus far. Regarding the event, Stewart noted that ISL has been relatively “chill” in enforcing the 15-meter rule, indicating that he walked a finer line when adhering to the rule.
Race officials also tend not to be as close to the pool as usual, given ISL’s desire to keep the pool deck clean for filming purposes. Now that FINA recognizes times swum in ISL, all ISL officials are certified.
While Hvas’ corrected score only puts the Current in third place entering Day 2 of the match, they’re in second place in the league behind the Cali Condors after Match 6 of the regular season. The Current have nine points to third-place Energy Standard’s eight.
This meet has been particularly difficult for the Current after one of their top swimmers, Australian Olympian Madi Wilson, was hospitalized with COVID-19. Though she was fully vaccinated and hospitalizations among the vaccinated are rare, they still happen. The Current had to undergo a brief quarantine, with members released as they tested negative for COVID-19.
Last season, the LA Current placed fourth overall, behind the London Roar, Energy Standard, and champions Cali Condors.
You can watch the video below to see that Hvas did not kick pass the 15 meters on any of his lengths.
Yeah – Hvas did not go past the 15 mtr mark. However, there is another aspect of butterfly rules that should have come into play and that is “re-submerging” after surfacing before the 15 mtr mark. According to the rules, once the swimmer surfaces after the start and turns, some portion of their body must remain on the surface at all times until the next turn. if you watch Hvas, he totally submerges for a brief moment before starting each pull. This is explained under 103.3.2 of the Butterfly stroke. Most officials won’t call this and will argue they can’t see the entire body at the same time. The rule was put in place to prevent a swimmer from re-submerging… Read more »
What was Devine dqed for? This article does not say that it was for going past 15m, it says that is what Hvas was dqed for going beyond 15m and from what I can see it does not appear as either did swim past 15m underwater. If Devine was dqed for an illegal turn, the video available here do not show an angle or anything else to support or contradict such a call.
Ah, yes, that would make sense that it was not for a 15m violation.
I just rewatched the race on the ISL website. Neither Hvas or DeVine should be DQ’d and it wasn’t event close. On the first 25, Hvas surfaced at about 12.5 m and DeVine at about 14 m. On no other lengths were they even close to 15 m. Strange these DQs happened in the first place. Were the officials looking at the wrong 15m marks?
if you look at it from an angle, like how looking at a clock on the wall looks like a different time than it actually is.
I guess to a degree. However, with the pool you can draw imaginary straight lines between the 15 m markers (or any color changes on the lane lines) regardless of your angle and judge the breakout relative to that line. With a clock, there’s no 2nd reference point to use for making an imaginary line, which is why it’s easier to read the clock wrong.
It certainly can be hard to judge exactly where the breakout happens in some cases, e.g., many of the recent Coleman Stewart breakouts, but in these LA Current IM cases, the arms were out of the water and coming around before the 15 m mark (Hvas had already fully completed his first full stroke cycle… Read more »
Good to hear. Now I don’t have to skip ahead, thank you.
Interesting this is still a problem. PAGING a kick counter 🙂