With competition returning at the 2013 Gymnasiade in Brasilia, Brazil, it appears as though Lithuanian World Record holder Ruta Meilutyte is feeling better, after scratching the 100 breaststroke with an undisclosed sickness.
Meilutyte swam a 25.30 in the women’s 50 free final to win the title and break the Meet Record. This swim came on the same day as her 200 breaststroke, around which there was much anticipation, given that she’s swum the event only once since she’s become one of the world’s best breaststrokers.
Meilutyte was a 2:38 in prelims of that 200 breast, but was disqualified for completely submerging at the finish.
Other winners on the day included Cai Bing Rong in the men’s 200 breaststroke with a 2:16.75, after earlier winning the 100 breaststroke.
2:38 is pretty bad for a world record holding breaststroker(albeit a in a shorter distance)…even unrested. I’m not sure what her best is… but that has to be quite a bit off
Ben – her best is a 2:30 from earlier this year.
Yet another dumb, tedious, misguided breaststroke rule. It’s legal to be completely submerged on every stroke cycle. Why should the last stroke be any different? We’ve trained to put our heads down at the finish. Now it’s illegal?
Who thinks up this stuff? It’s gone way past ridiculous.
Agreed David.
My bad! – 2.38, I just saw…
Any idea what her time was pre-DQ?
She was dq’ed for being completely submerged at the finish? I thought that was only a dq in backstroke….
It’s not supposed to be a DQ in breaststroke, provided her head broke the surface at some point in the final stroke cycle.
Hard to say exactly what happened as there’s no video of the meet, but that was Ruta’s explanation for the dq…
Here is the rule:
“The head may be submerged after the last arm pull prior to the touch, provided it breaks the surface of the water at some point during the last complete or incomplete cycle preceding the touch.”
My guess is she did underwater recovery to touch the wall, with head not breaking the surface.