Africa-Press – Namibia. AN administrative blunder has led to Namibian swimmer Xander Skinner missing out on three events at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
Skinner had qualified for the 50m, 100m and 200m freestyle events, as well as the 50m butterfly, but shortly before the start of the games was informed that he had only been entered for the 100m freestyle.
His mother Sonja, who is in Birmingham supporting Xander along with his father Alex, said the news came as a huge blow.
“I’m bitterly disappointed. An incredible mistake came in, he qualified for four events, but he was only entered for the 100m freestyle. I’ve been trying to find out what went wrong, but no one is owning up to the mistake,” she said.
“Xander was in great form, and I’m sure he would have improved all his times. But now his dream has been shattered, it’s a complete shambles and no one is taking responsibility for this mess. I’ve decided to come out in the open about this because I don’t want it to ever happen again,” she added.
According to Skinner, the Namibia Swimming Federation is responsible for the entries, who then send it through to the Namibia National Olympic Committee, which in turn sends it through to the Commonwealth Games Federation.
The president of the Namibia Swimming Federation, Aileen Botha, did not respond to queries about the incident, while the president of the Namibia National Olympic Committee, Abner Xoagub also did not furnish any details.
Skinner, however, said they had still tried to enter Xander as a late entrant for the other events, but it did not work.
“We tried to see if we could still enter him as a late entrant, but the Commonwealth Games Association said ‘that’s it, you missed the deadline, and we cannot change the rules’,” she said.
“His coach Janis also had meetings with Abner and Joan (Smit) and they are very disappointed about the situation,” she added.
Dietlind Siedentopf a former secretary general of the Namibia Swimming Federation said she was shocked when she heard the news.
“I was horrified when I heard the news, but I don’t want to point fingers, because I don’t have all the facts. The NSF has undergone many changes, but it would definitely not have happened ten years ago when we had all the systems in place,” she said.
Despite his bitter disappointment, Skinner gave a great performance when he competed in his only event, the 100m freestyle on Sunday.
In his first round heat he came seventh in 50,40 seconds, which just beat his former national record of 50,43 seconds.
He only finished seventh, but it was a fast time and after waiting anxiously to hear if he had qualified for the semifinals, Skinner got the news that he had indeed qualified as one of the fastest losers.
In the semifinals he lined up against some of the world’s top stars like Kyle Chalmers of Australia and Tom Dean of England, and responded with a great performance.
He once again finished seventh, but again broke his national record with a new mark of 50,06 seconds. Chalmers, meanwhile, won the race in a new Commonwealth Games record of 47,36 seconds.
Sonja Skinner, meanwhile, said she was proud of her son.
“I am so proud of him that he could still put in such a great performance despite being so disappointed. He is devastated, he worked so hard for this, and his coach Janis was also so excited and looking forward to his performances,” she said.
“We had already bought tickets for the 50m freestyle heats today, but since he won’t be swimming, we have decided to rather visit some family members here,” she added.
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