Cameron van der Burgh insists use of underwater footage to stop multiple dolphin kicks in breaststroke
The South African veteran breaststroke swimmer, Cameron van der Burgh has insisted that underwater footage or video technology should be used so that swimmers do not use multiple dolphin kicks in the breaststroke.
The fact that international aquatics sport managing body, Federation Internationale de Natation (FINA), does not use underwater technology for monitoring, has allowed every breaststroke swimmer to use two to three dolphin kicks after dive, before coming
out of the surface of water.
According to the FINA rules, every breaststroke swimmer is allowed only one dolphin kick after the dive but almost everyone at the 2012 London Olympic Games use two or three dolphin kicks.
The issue was raised by Australia, as their swimmer was shortly behind the world record holder, van der Burgh, who clinched gold medal of the event in a newly improved world record time of 58.46 seconds.
Van der Burgh stayed half body length ahead of Australia swimmer, Christian Sprenger, who proved his mettle for silver medal in a time of 58.93 seconds.
The South African swimmer argued that he was not willing to risk four years of his hard work for these dolphin kicks, when everyone in the pool takes advantage of them.
He admitted that he used three dolphin kicks before reaching the surface of the water and he was not the only swimmer at that time, indicating that Brenton Rickard of Australia, who was next to him in the pool was also doing the same.
“I think only if you can bring in underwater footage that’s when everybody will stop doing it because that’s when you’ll have peace of mind to say, 'All right I don’t need to do it because everybody else is doing it and it’s a fair playing field. I’m really
for it. If they can bring it, it will better the sport. But I’m not willing to lose to someone that is doing it,” said van der Burgh.
“Everybody’s doing it ... not everybody, but 99 per cent,” he added.
After his concern, it is expected that the authorities might consider using video technology in future events, this year.
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