DUBAI // The world governing body of swimming has removed the Emirates as a venue for the 10km Marathon Swimming World Cup after the death of an athlete in the event last year.
The decision emerged following last week's release of findings that the UAE organising committee failed to meet the rules of the event in Fujairah where Fran Crippen, 26, a six-time US national champion, died last October.
The announcement in December of the UAE as a venue for the marathon event had sparked concerns from athletes about returning less than a year after Crippen's death.
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Fina, the world governing body, has now dropped the UAE as one of seven venues in the 10km Marathon Swimming World Cup that started in Brazil on April 17 with 92 swimmers from 21 countries competing. Two venues in Canada will be used as a replacement.
The UAE has also lost its place in the 2011 Open Water Swimming Grand Prix to Syria.
Such events were vital to building the sport, said Jay Benner, the UAE national coach and former open water swimmer for the US team.
"It gives an opportunity to expose it to the Emirati swimmers," he said. "That's the benefit of holding these events, to try and create an awareness in the UAE of the sport and what it has to offer youth."
The UAE Swimming Federation will comment today on the Fina report that lists dozens of rules "inadequately fulfilled" by the UAE organising committee. These include no liability insurance, no medical officer on site and a last-minute unauthorised change of venue.
Comment was delayed as officials focused on hosting the UAE International Swimming Championships in Dubai, which drew 750 participants at the weekend.
"We cannot answer now because it's a very difficult moment with Fina," said Ayman Saad, the UAE Swimming Federation's executive director. "We cannot comment; it is not resolved."
Obaid al Jesmi, a two-time Olympian and the captain of the national swimming team, said the UAE Swimming Federation was in a position to "rebuild trust" with the international swimming community.
"Certainly the incident has shaken the world of swimming, and Fina and UAE swimming specially," he said in an e-mail. "However, we have heard and seen the success story of the 2011 Dubai World Championship. We are regaining the trust of the swimming world and I am sure our leaders are capable of pushing the bar toward sports safety."
Al Jesmi's brother, Mohamed al Jesmi, the manager of the national team, said the UAE could use the recommendations to build a safe future. "It's about the improvement now," he said. "Incidents can happen if safety measures are not properly followed. What we would like to see is the root cause analysis report of the incident to be learnt and studied thoroughly, and corrective actions to be taken."
The Fina-commissioned task force to investigate Crippen's death has listed pages of recommendations for better open water safety.
"The good thing is that there will be a lot more attention given to conducting these events with a lot more safety measures that are going to be enforced so that a tragedy like this will never occur again," said Mr Benner.
Fina has rescheduled open water races at world championships in Shanghai to start earlier in the day, between 8am and 9am, to "avoid the peak hours of the day in relation to the air and water temperature".
A maximum water temperature of 31°C has been recommended by Fina in its open water rules for 2011.
The governing body will collaborate with a group of scientists to establish guidelines on maximum water temperatures. Previously, there was no limit.
azacharias@thenational.ae
UAE will not hold world swim meet
The world governing body for swimming has removed the UAE as a venue for the 10km Marathon Swimming World Cup race following the death of six-time US national champion Fran Crippen in last year's event.
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