August 16, 2016 3.55 pm
This story is over 87 months old
Furious Lincoln swimmer slams judges after Olympic disqualification
Lincoln open water swimmer Jack Burnell has been controversially disqualified from the 10k marathon event after appearing to miss out on an Olympic medal by inches. Scunthorpe-born Jack, 23, qualified for the games by finishing fifth in the World Championship 10km marathon swimming event in Kazan, Russia in 2015. He was the first Team GB…
Jack Burnell was disqualified, despite being part of a photo finish for third place.
Lincoln open water swimmer Jack Burnell has been controversially disqualified from the 10k marathon event after appearing to miss out on an Olympic medal by inches.
Scunthorpe-born Jack, 23, qualified for the games by finishing fifth in the World Championship 10km marathon swimming event in Kazan, Russia in 2015.
He was the first Team GB athlete to qualify for the Rio Olympics and was in medal contention throughout the nearly two-hour long race.
Despite what looked like an extremely close finish, Jack was sadly disqualified.
In a chaotic photo finish, Jack was credited with a bronze medal but replays appeared to show that he had just missed out on the touch.
After an agonising wait for the results to be officially announced, event organisers controversially disqualified Jack, presumably for impeding his competitors.
A furious Jack told BBC Sport: “The whole is thing a joke. I was disqualified two metres from the finish.
“My first yellow was coming down the straight back here and I was second, no one was either side of me and he pulls out a yellow card.
I couldn’t have physically touched anyone and I got a yellow card.
“I shook my head at the guy. This is meant to be the pinnacle of our sport and there are referees who haven’t a clue what they are doing.”
The chaotic photo finish at the end of the race
Jack was a former Lincoln Vulcans swimmer, and his parents Christine and David live in North Hykeham.
He is now based at the British Swimming headquarters in Loughborough.
Setting for the men’s 10km marathon
Dutchman Ferry Weertman won the race in a time of 1:52:59.8.
Greek swimmer Spyridon Gianniotis finished second in exactly the same time as the race winner.
Frenchman Marc-Antoine Oliver took the bronze medal.
Many readers have been giving their reaction to the disqualification on Twitter.
@thelincolnite@jackburnell seems to be total confusion as to who impeded to. Formal protest I hope. Great effort JB.
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