FINA Announces Suspensions of Kenyan and Micronesian Federations

The FINA Bureau held its final meeting of the 2019 calendar year on Thursday in Kuwait, City on the occasion of the 20th FINA World Men’s Junior Water Polo Championships that began on the same day.

Among the news coming out of the meeting are the confirmation of the dates for the 2020 World Short Course Swimming Championships, which will be held from December 15th-20th in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

FINA also approved the swimming qualifying time standards for both the 2020 and 2021 World Championships in Fukuoka, Japan. They have not yet released those time standards, though we have requested them.

The final highlight of the information that FINA has released is the suspension of two federations, Kenya and the Federated States of Micronesia, until “elections are held in accordance with FINA Rules.”

Kenya failed to meet an October 30th deadline to have elections amid ongoing conflicts in the sport in the country, which was the 2nd deadline after they earlier missed a June 30th deadline.

The most noticeable impact of this is that the federations’ athletes will compete under a neutral flag at major FINA events.

FINA also gave the Bureau updates on thheir partnership with the International Testing Agency, which carried out 2,565 out of competition tests on aquatic athletes.

Full FINA-Released Notes from Bureau Meeting

• Approval of the standard qualifying times for the 2020 FINA World Swimming Championships (25m) in Abu Dhabi (UAE), and the 2021 FINA World Championships in Fukuoka (JPN);
• Approval of the Swimming and Diving Technical Officials for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games;
• Award to Windsor (CAN) the organisation of the 2020 edition of the FINA Artistic Swimming World Series Super Final;
• Analysis of the applications submitted for the “Pools for All” programme, aimed at assisting in the construction of a swimming pool in nations lacking this facility;
• Approval of the venue and dates of the upcoming FINA World Swimming Championships (25m), to be staged in Abu Dhabi (UAE) on December 15-20, 2020;
• Information on the most updated stages of preparation for the Olympic qualification events in Diving and Artistic Swimming, 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games and 2021 FINA World Championships in Fukuoka (JPN). On the Olympic Games, FINA registered with satisfaction the progress of the new Aquatic complex (to be completed in April), which will contribute to Aquatics’ added-value in the Olympic programme and will constitute an important legacy for Tokyo and Japan after the Games’ celebration;
• Update on the figures and procedures related with the ITA anti-doping programme. Between January and November 2019, the International Testing Agency carried out 2565 out-of competition tests on aquatic athletes;
• Temporary suspension of the National Federations of Kenya and Federated States of Micronesia, until proper elections are held in accordance with the FINA Rules;