BENGALURU: The timings and results of the Uzbekistan Open Swimming Championship in April, which also served as an Olympic qualifier, is invalidated as per the information on the world swimming's governing body FINA's website.
Indian swimmer SP Likith, who featured in the meet, had earlier alleged that the timings were tampered to suit Uzbek swimmers. A few of them had also punched their Tokyo tickets.
The Swimming Federation of India secretary general Monal Chokshi also confirmed about the meet being invalidated.
"It has been invalidated by FINA.There were issues related to the timing. FINA has a strict rule as it is an Olympic qualifying event also. If there are any doubts or discrepancies related to the timing system, FINA would not consider it as an official timing result. That is the reason why it has been invalidated," Chokshi said.
It means that the timings of the Indian swimmers, including Srihari Nataraj, who clocked an impressive 54.07s in the 100m backstroke does not count. Several other swimmers from India had won gold medals too with good timings.
Likith learned about the meet being invalidated recently.
"It is a good step taken by FINA. It also shows the power of an athlete. Others should also stand up if there is some cheating in the sport. The system (people involved) will think twice before they cheat," said Likith.