Noè Ponti misses out on a medal in the 100 m butterfly in fourth place, although silver winner Joshua Liendo probably broke the rules. Will the Ticino swimmer get bronze after all? SRF swimming expert Tobias Gross sorts it out.
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- Noè Ponti just missed out on the Olympic medal in the 100 m dolphin in fourth place.
- Annoyingly for the Swiss swimmer: if the breach of the rules by silver medallist Joshua Liendo had been recognized, he might have won bronze after all.
- Liendo did not trigger the timing system at the edge of the pool in accordance with the rules. SRF swimming expert Tobias Gross told blue Sport: "The judge should have seen that."
- The Swiss now apparently want to appeal. Gross: "But the chances are extremely slim."
As if Noè Ponti's fourth place in the 100 m butterfly wasn't annoying enough after his sub-optimal stroke, there is now another setback. TV footage shows that silver medal winner Joshua Liendo did not touch the timing plate mounted on the edge of the pool with both hands at the same time in the final on Saturday evening.
The Canadian first touched the device with his left hand and only then with his right. The competition rules stipulate that the plate must be touched with both hands simultaneously both during the turns and at the finish.
There will hardly be any subsequent adjustment of the ranking list or disqualification of Liendo. The World Aquatics regulations state that a protest must be lodged within 30 minutes of the end of the competition. This did not happen.
But how could this happen? How can a breach of the rules go undetected when so much is at stake and so many people are watching?
Tobias Gross was on site as a co-commentator for SRF during the swimming competitions. In an interview with blue Sport, he explains: "We concentrated fully on the battle for bronze. Kristof Milak and Josh Liendo were far ahead, so the focus was on Ponti and Ilya Kharun. I was therefore surprised that this became an issue again afterwards and that the result is now being contested."
"A clearly wrong decision"
Liendo's attack was not an issue at all immediately after the race. Not even with the Swiss team, according to the SRF swimming expert. Nobody seems to have noticed that the second-placed Canadian's stroke was obviously not in accordance with the rules.
This is also not the responsibility of Ponti's team, the Swiss Swimming Federation or Swiss Olympic. Gross holds the judge, who had to check Liendo's stroke, accountable: "The judges standing next to the starting blocks have a single function at this point. They have to check whether the attack complies with the rules or not. And it clearly wasn't."
One would assume that a judge would report it if he saw something like that. "I can't say why that didn't happen. For me, it's a clear error of judgment. You should have seen that, even if it happened very quickly, of course," the SRF swimming expert continued, adding that the TV images spoke a clear language. "I don't want to accuse anyone of anything. But I've also heard that people are sometimes a bit more generous with the regulations when it comes to big names. But in my opinion, Liendo should have been disqualified."
Chances are zero
In a statement from Swiss Aquatics, it says that "in consultation with Swiss Olympic" they are in the process of "investigating the facts and discussing the possible next steps". Gross can understand that the Swiss want to do everything they can to ensure that Ponti can still win a medal: "When there is so much prestige at stake, an Olympic medal, you have to try everything. But in my eyes, the chances are extremely small."
In any case, Gross does not believe that Noè Ponti would be very happy if he were to win the bronze medal after all. "To be honest: the other one was simply faster. The shot wasn't good, but Liendo didn't have any advantage. He was probably just so exhausted that he couldn't execute the shot technically cleanly. If you win a medal after all due to someone else's disqualification, but you feel like you've been fourth for four days, that's not very satisfying."
