PHOENIX, Arizona, June 24. SOMETHING that was missed in the initial world record ratification report from FINA released earlier this week is that Russia's Anastasia Zueva could actually wind up losing a third potential world-record performance, according to various reports.
Zueva initially posted a pair of world-record times in the women's 50 back (27.48, 27.47) in an unapproved suit at the Russian Nationals in April. Those times both surpassed the world record shared by Australia's Sophie Edington and China's Zhao Jing with matching 27.67s. FINA, however, refused to ratify the records as previously announced.
However, Zueva did beat the rolled back world record of 27.67 with a winning time of 27.56 at the Monaco stop of the Mare Nostrum meet. The problem? Since she did not break a world record listed at the time as her time of 27.47, she reportedly was not drug tested following the swim. World record applications require a clean drug test to be ratified, as demonstrated by the pending world record applications of Cameron van der Burgh, Fred Bousquet and Felipe Silva.