Con-tao-versy

Con-tao-versy

First the celebration, then the suspense.

With emphatic fist pumps, Tao Li had just completed a gruelling golden double by swimming back to back in the women's 100m backstroke (1min 02.47sec) and 100m butterfly (59.87sec) finals on Saturday night at the Wunna Theikdi Swimming Complex.

Then things got tricky for the 23-year-old Singaporean.

The Vietnam contingent, who had just seen their 17-year-old swimmer Nguyen Thi Anh Vien finish a mere 0.29 seconds behind Tao Li in the backstroke final, cried foul.

They claimed the golden girl of Singapore swimming should have been disqualified as she had not surfaced by the 15-metre mark, which is a requirement for the backstroke event.

The Vietnamese launched an appeal which caused a 15-minute delay, but saw it thrown out by a team of five jurors - four of them Singaporeans.

GOLD

Moments later, Tao Li went on the podium to receive her gold medal, with Nguyen settling for the silver.

Vietnam swimming head coach Dang Anh Tuan was still fuming when The New Paper spoke to him.

Showing TNP a video clip of the race recorded on his iPad, he said in broken English: "Is very clear.

"You can see everybody is (out of the water) before 15 metres, but Tao Li's head still under water.

"But jury of five people, four are from Singapore."

Singapore Swimming Association vice-president Ang Peng Wee, one of four Singaporean members of the jury, brushed aside the Vietnam coach's accusation that there was favouritism shown towards Tao Li.

"During the team leaders' meeting one day before the start of the swimming competition, no one objected (to four Singaporeans in the jury)," he said.

"We invited each country to send a representative, but nobody was available, so we had to step in."

Ang, who is also the chairman of the South-east Asian technical committee, said the jurors did not review the video recording on the coach's iPad as video evidence is not allowed in a protest.

JUDGES' DECISION

When TNP asked him how the panel reached a conclusion, he said: "We have four line judges standing by at the 15-metre mark and they saw nothing wrong. They are the closest to the pool."

Adamant that she did nothing wrong, Tao Li said: "I have swum at the World Championships and I've never been disqualified.

"I followed my routine of 17 kicks and I'm confident I didn't break any rules.

"I heard it could be that she wanted to buy some time as she also had an 800m free final to swim (Nguyen finished third), but I'm not affected.

"Everyone has the right to protest.

"I thought I did great because I really wanted these two golds and I'm not 17 or 18 so it was tough with the events so close to each other and I don't recover as fast now."

msazali@sph.com.sg

davidlee@sph.com.sg


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