Another tie in the pool, and the speculations about foul play have begun.
What is a Dead Heat in Swimming
At the beginning of the competition, Emma McKeon was controversially disqualified from the 100-meter butterfly heats because she appeared to touch the wall before Yufei Zhang of China.
Since then the exceedingly “rare” dead heats have been coming thick and fast.
The men’s 100 metre backstroke between Russian Evgeny Rylov and American Ryan Murphy, and the men’s 400 metre freestyle between Australians Elijah Winnington and Jack McLoughlin, both ended in a photo finish.
Then there was the draw for fifth in heat five of the 200m freestyle that culminated in a swim off between Japan’s Katsuhiro Matsumoto and Germany’s Lukas Martens.
Then last night Aussie Izaac Stubblety-Cook and Dutchman Arno Kamminga dead heated in the 200m breaststroke.
The following heat of the same event saw American Nic Fink and China’s Qin Haiyang do the same.
The Olympic Pool Events Saw More Dead Heats Than Any Previous Meet in History.
And it appears to be happening in the same two lanes – four and five.
Dead heat once more,” Channel 7 commentator Basil Zempilas stated. So, it’s not a surprise to see them swimming about the Tokyo pool.
After being asked what he thought of the unprecedented number of dead heats, swimming legend Ian Thorpe joked, “How much time have we got?”
The equipment “may have been faulty, but they’re stating there is no defect in the equipment, they’ve tested them,” he said.
They do a test of that every class. Someone is making sure the lanes are functioning properly and efficiently by measuring them.
Replays showed that McKeon had touched in ahead of Zhang, making their dead heat all the more frightening.
Fans, including Commonwealth Games gold medalist Meagen Nay, shared their thoughts on the matter.
She proclaimed, “Emma was obviously on the wall first.”
Officials From FINA Have Assured That The Timing System is Fine.
Since the timing pads respond to different levels of pressure, this indicates that McKeon touched the wall less forcefully than Zhang.
While Thorpe did say, “We would contest Emma McKeon’s (result) if that was a final,” the latter statement was added to emphasise their disagreement.
McKeon took home bronze behind the gold medalist Margaret MacNeil of Canada and the runner-up Zhang of China (silver).
