Hackett wins reprieve after disqualification

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AUSTRALIA’s team captain Grant Hackett was disqualified for the first time in top level competition yesterday when he checked in late for the 400m freestyle heats at the national short-course championships in Melbourne.

Hackett and five others, including Craig Stevens, Ky Hurst and and Kurtis McGillivary, failed to report to the marshalling room two clear events before the 400m heats, as required by the international federation (FINA) rules.

They were ruled out of the event but then given an official reprieve.

Eventually, the six were allowed to swim a separate heat.

Their appeals against disqualification were heard by the referee, Lawrie Cox, and upheld on the grounds the marshalling scoreboard that alerts athletes to which events are being called was difficult to see from the athletes’ area.

Hackett said that, despite a nine-year international career, he was completely unaware of the FINA rule.

“I would have been disqualified several times before if it had been enforced like this, definitely,” Hackett said.

Swimming Australia’s chief executive Glenn Tasker said the incident was a “hiccup” and the referee had given the swimmers the benefit of the doubt.

“We had a mass group of some of our best 400m freestylers not turning up,” Tasker said. “In the first instance the officials did the right thing, but what the referee has done when considering the protest is given the benefit of the doubt to the athletes, given the environment that we are working at with this pool.”

Tasker said he believed the same ruling would also have been made for lesser-known athletes.

Hackett arrived early last night and won the 400m final in 3min 36.73sec.