Has Britain Played Smart Game On Rio Relay Rules? London 2016: Bill Furniss Sums Up

Britain head coach Bill Furniss defended an Olympic selection policy that extended its blade beyond Rio 2016 to cut clear medal contenders out of a home European Championships in London last week.

In the depths of that defence is what could turn out to be a clever interpretation – perhaps the only one that is correct if the words mean what they spell – of new rules governing relays in Rio. On Britain’s team, there are three swimmers who earned selection purely on the basis of a relay but only one of them could turn out to be a “relay-only” swimmer and fall under new rules imposed as part of the International Olympic Committee’s attempts to control numbers of athletes at the Games.

Summing up as the action drew to a close on Sunday, Furniss said that Britain was set for a successful Olympics, big hitters such as World champions Adam Peaty and James Guy would take great expectations in their stride and the future looked bright for the Target Tokyo 2020 developers selected to race in London alongside the senior team at an event that allows four entries per nation in the heats of each race (only two can progress to semis and final).

Furniss was just as emphatic when it came to the status of the Olympic team: door locked. There was no room, he confirmed, for additions to the Rio squad despite big improvements such as those from Kathleen Dawson, a junior on 1:01s over 100m backstroke at Olympic trials in Glasgow last month but three times inside the minute in London this past week, including a relay effort that helped deliver medley relay gold in a classic curtain-closer for Britain.

The Britain women’s medley relay – gold in the curtain-closer at London 2012 Europeans – by Craig Lord

“There will be no additions to the team. We’ve selected 26,” said Furniss when asked if Dawson might be added to the Rio roster to provide back-up for Georgia Davies, the only sub-minute backstroke swimmer available for the medley relay despite the fact that selectors stretched down to seventh place for the men’s 4x200m freestyle.

The argument is clear: Britain are world champions and so backup is a good thing to protect the likes of multi-eventers such as Guy. The logic is clear, too, someone having read the new relay rule carefully.

Each federation has a maximum quota of 26 swimmers for solo events. Britain has selected 26 swimmers. Some of those were added after consideration for relays BUT those entered in solo events are not “relay-only” swimmers. With that in mind, read the rule:

“If an NOC enters relay-only swimmers for a specific event, these swimmers must swim either in the heat or final of that relay event. Should a relay-only swimmer not compete, this will lead to the disqualification of therespective team in the final. “The NOCs must confirm to FINA the participation of their qualified relay team by no later than 10 June 2016. The NOCs must confirm their relay-only swimmers to FINA by no later than 1 July 2016.”

Go down to 7th in the 200m freestyle at Britain’s Olympic trials and you find Dan Wallace, Commonwealth 400m medley champion but well away from best at Olympic trials and far away from where he would have needed to be for qualification to solo events at Rio 2016.

He is very much there for the 4x200m freestyle but if Britain enter him in, say, the 400m medley, then he is no longer a “relay-only” swimmer and the rule that all seven swimmers who could be entered in the 4x200m freestyle must race either heat or final no longer applies.

In naming its Rio squad, Britain described as “relay additions” under its policy the following three swimmers: Wallace, Cameron Kurle and Ieuan Lloyd.

No swimmer qualified to race the 200m medley for Britain but Lloyd is top 2 in Britain and could be entered. Putting Wallace and Lloyd in the Olympic medley events would speak once more to all that is galling for the likes of Pavoni and arguments of ‘fairness’ of the selection policy.

Kurle, as the only swimmer on the team in Rio with nowhere to go in terms of solo events, may be the only one of the seven possibles for the 4×200 who will have to race either the heat or final of the relay in Rio.

Duncan Scott will race the 100m, Robbie Renwick, with Guy, will race the 200m solo, Stephen Milne will race the 400 and 1500m.

Many nations appear to have selected a maximum of five (in some cases six) swimmers only for relays in Rio while keeping an eye on the new rule, the loophole to which is a medical out: if a doctor says swimmer X is in no condition to race come the hour, then the rest of the relay is safe to have him/her sit …

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