A decision to call a swimming race as dead heat at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics has sparked controversy after a video emerged appearing to evidence one of the competitors finishing clearly in front.
Australian and Chinese swimmers Emma Mckeon and Yufei Zhang were awarded an equal finish in their women's 100m butterfly heat after finishing in a Commonwealth record 55.82 seconds.
However, a circulating video of the end of the race shows Mckeon to be clearly touching the finishing wall first.
A number of sportspeople have tweeted out about the verdict.
Commonwealth Games gold medallist Meagen Nay spoke out and said: "Emma was clearly on wall first."
Former Australian cricketer Darren Berry joined in with the complaints, tweeting: "WTF seriously Emma McKeon touched clearly ahead of China on the wall how on earth can that be a dead heat?"
Officials were quick to explain what had happened and didn't award Mckeon the win despite the footage.
Although the Australian did reach the end first, she did not apply enough pressure to the touch sensitive technology used in the pool for her time to be recorded.
She only applied such pressure a few moments later, at which point Zhang also hit the wall with the requisite amount of force.
In the end, both athletes qualified through the heat and came out of their respective semi-finals.
Indeed, the rivals ended up on the podium, with Zhang collecting silver and the 27-year-old Australian snatching bronze in a personal best time.
The final was an extremely close affair, with Canadian Margaret Macneil winning the gold despite finishing just 0.14 seconds ahead of fourth placed Torri Huske - who came in a heartbreaking 0.01 seconds behind Mckeon.
The Australian was pleased with her performance in spite of missing out on the gold: "I got an Olympic medal. To do a PB in an Olympic final – I’m pretty happy – you can’t ask for more, that’s the fastest time I have ever swum.”
Mckeon was also part of the Australian team which smashed the world record and won gold in the women's 4x100m freestyle relay on Sunday.
