Isaac Cooper

Australian young gun Isaac Cooper has been sensationally robbed of a gold medal at the world short course championships after he was forced to race the 50m ...

“I came here to swim the fastest 50 that I can. “There should’ve been a 15m rope that goes down when there is a false start … He’s a great talent and he’s going to have a lot of opportunities. I came here to become world champion.” This is a false start at the 15m mark. But that wasn’t there so we race or not to race. Obviously it’s disappointing the way this one shook out but I think he’s going to have a lot of world titles in his name come the end of his career.” “I definitely didn’t want to do another (race). World Aquatics apologises for the error.” “This is rubbish. “The reality is normally in this situation there's a rope at 15m that will drop to stop the swimmer. But instead of a rope falling down to stop the swimmers at the 15m mark, five of the eight swimmers including Cooper swam the race at full pelt.

A technical error has denied Isaac Cooper a world title and new junior world record after swimming a time faster than the eventual winner.

A World Aquatics statement said: “A technical error by an official occurred at the start of the men’s 50m backstroke final,” the statement read. They went in as hot favourites with two world premier freestyle sprinters in Emma McKeon and Kyle Chalmers in the squad. “I’m not going to lie. “I heard a second horn and I thought I’m here at worlds, I’m not going to stop in case everyone else keeps going,” Cooper told reporters. I let him know in my mind, he won that race. World Aquatics apologises for the error.” “I feel for Isaac. “There should have been a drop [of a rope to stop athletes swimming]. “Life just keeps throwing shit at me and I just keep on pushing through,” Cooper said. I did what I was supposed to do. “I’ve gone through so many low points and all I want to do is be able to stand on top. He was in disbelief and couldn’t believe his luck when he realised the result would not stand.

Australia's Isaac Cooper has been denied a backstroke world short course gold medal in bizarre circumstances after.

“They’ve definitely got a disadvantage compared to the boys that heard the noise to stop in the race. No rope fell at the 15m mark to stop the swimmers, with Cooper touching first in a personal best time of 22.49 seconds which was a junior world record. Australia’s Isaac Cooper has been denied a backstroke world short course gold medal in bizarre circumstances after less than half the field completed the race due to a timing malfunction.

A miscommunicated false start has caused havoc at the FINA World Short Course Swimming Championships on Fri...

I'd love to say I felt he should be receiving a gold, I'd love to say he deserved to win and deserved the gold medal but, unfortunately in sport, you don't get... Then someone broke the news to him (that the result wouldn't count) and it was a look of disbelief on his face. That's what we try and do." I thought it was a horrible thing that happened. It isn't who deserves it the most. I now have to make sure I don't get cold. This is a false start at the 15m-mark, so all athletes should have known. "They've got to notify the athletes. They have to notify them," Australian swimming legend I have to try and get dry again.' All of these things play on an athlete's mind. I now have to warm down from that. "With Isaac Cooper having won part of that race, it was trying to resolve what was a fair resolution for each of the athletes in this and it was difficult to work that out because three of those athletes could have said, "We could have won that race if we had swum it" but others had raced another race already before that," he said.

Isaac Cooper won swimming gold for Australia before having the medal taken away in controversial scenes. Read more here.