Summary
Owen Lloyd lost the title of the 1500 meter freestyle event at the ACC Swimming and Diving Championship, due to “interference between swimmers”, something prohibited by NCAA regulations. Ross Dant inherited the achievement and expressed anger at the referees’ decision.
Photo: Reproduction
American swimmer Owen Lloyd lost the title after being disqualified from his victory in a 1500 meter freestyle race due to an ‘illegal celebration’.
Owen swam the 1500 meter freestyle at the ACC Swimming and Diving Championships, making a time of 14:37.04. Ross Dant finished the race seconds later for second place and inherited the achievement.
Lloyd climbed into the lane and held out his hand to celebrate with Dant, who is his teammate. He got confused and fell onto his friend’s track while the race was still going on. The referees understood that this was “interference between swimmers”, as the NCAA regulations say: “any competitor who interferes with another swimmer during a race will be disqualified from that race, subject to the referee’s discretion”.
After the arbitration decision, Lloyd was disqualified and was visibly upset. In a video posted on YouTube, he buries his head in his hands at the edge of the pool when cameras show the moment he discovers he was being disqualified.
“Upset, angry and confused about what happened tonight, but not defeated,” Lloyd said on Instagram. “They can take away the points and the official victory, but they can never take away my motivation, my passion and my love for my team. There are lessons to be learned and I’m sure I will find the silver lining in this experience, but I know I’m not finished and this has all just added more fuel to the fire,” he stated.
Ross Dant showed anger instead of celebrating his victory and also did not agree with the decision, which gave him the title.
“I think this is the stupidest rule in swimming. Owen beat me fair and square. He should be on that podium, Dant said on the ACC Network broadcast.
“He was excited. This was a big win for him. He deserved it, and that’s his emotion. That’s what we get in swimming when we do well. We’ve been training all year for a moment like this and to have him disqualified is the stupidest thing in the world”, he added.
Source: Redação Terra
2024-02-28 21:02:00
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