Bernard loses world record in swimsuit row

Published on Monday 22 June 2009 22:09

ALAIN Bernard's world 100m freestyle record set in April will not be approved, swimming's world governing body Fina said yesterday.

Bernard became the first man to crack the 47 seconds barrier with 46.94 at the French championships but the Olympic champion was wearing an Arena-made swimsuit which had not been approved by Fina.

The world record is still held by Australian Eamon Sullivan in 47.05. "This decision will have serious consequences for swimming and us swimmers," Bernard said in a statement. "Fina's positions are contradictory and impossible to understand."

The French Federation said it would appeal the decision.

"This is pitiful. This is not the end of the story. We must now defend our athletes' best interests," said French technical director Christian Donze.

"These are inconsistent decisions once again," Bernard's coach Denis Auguin added. "Some times set with some swimsuits are approved while others set with equivalent suits are not."

Frederick Bousquet's world 50m freestyle record is still pending Fina approval but the governing body approved his controversial Jaked 01 suit yesterday.

Fina said they were now just awaiting the results of Bousquet's anti-doping tests before approving his 20.94 time as a world record.

Alarmed by more than 100 world records in the past 18 months, most from swimmers wearing new-technology suits, Fina decided to reassess the standards before next month's world championships in Rome.

At the heart of the controversy are new suits totally covered with polyurethane to aid buoyancy. The old suits only had polyurethane plates.

While Arena added non-polyurethane components to their suits to gain approval from Fina, Jaked kept their suits unchanged but still got the green light from the world body yesterday.