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Sydney - The coach of Australian Eamon Sullivan, who lost his 100m freestyle world record to Alain Bernard, has questioned the role the Frenchman's new swimsuit played in the performance.
Olympic champion Bernard set a new 100m freestyle record in Montpellier on Thursday with a time of 46.94sec, becoming the first man to smash the symbolic 47-second barrier and slicing 0.11s off Sullivan's old mark.
However, it remains to be seen whether the record will stand as Bernard's new swimsuit, supplied by Arena since January, has not yet received approval from the International Swimming Federation (FINA).
If the suit is not approved, the record will not be validated.
Sullivan's coach, Grant Stoelwinder, said he just wanted swimmers to be on a level footing.
"It is an amazing swim and an amazing standard," Stoelwinder said Friday.
"But I just can't wait for FINA to come out so that it comes down to the difference in an athlete and not the difference in what they are wearing."
Stoelwinder has been outspoken about the benefits of the LZR Racer, saying the suit provided Sullivan with an improvement of about 0.3s per lap.
He said the high-tech suits had made times irrelevant.
Twenty-three out of the 25 swimming world records, which fell at last year's Beijing Olympics, were posted by swimmers wearing the LZR Racer suits.
"It is not really an indicator any more," he said. "Is it the technology or did he swim fast?
"I do not want it to sound like sour grapes but the first thing you do after someone breaks a world record is ask: 'What suit is he wearing?'"
Stoelwinder said losing the record wouldn't harm Sullivan's chances at this year's Rome world championships.
"The world record is nice to have but holding world records doesn't mean you win the gold medal," he said.
"Eamon was the world record holder heading into Beijing and didn't come out with gold.
"It might be nice for him going into a meet not being the world record holder."
