Burnett: Ban on swim suits cannot come soon enough

Simon Burnett admitted FINA's ban on polyurethane suits cannot come quick enough after he brought his disappointing World Championship campaign to a close in Rome.

The 26-year-old failed to make it past the heats in the 100m freestyle earlier in the week and suffered the same fate in the 50m equivalent at the same stage.

Burnett clocked 22.23seconds - nine hundredths of a second away from his personal best set in 2005 - on the way to 22nd overall at the Foro Italico.

Over 40 world records were shattered in Rome comfortably eclipsing the total set in Beijing - a figure which prompted world governing body FINA to impose a ban on polyurethane suits from 2010.

And Burnett is in no doubt that that record is due to the introduction of new-age impermeable suits and was one of several swimmers to praise FINA’s decision in the Eternal City.

"This meet has been absolutely ridiculous - I thought the Olympics were very fast and difficult to make it back in certain events but this meet has been very hard to make it back in any event," said the Windsor Swimming Club member.

"I knew it was going to be hard in Rome and I thought the 100m would be my better event because I always knew it was going to take something special to make to the semi-final in 50m.

"It will be a good wake-up call and it will force everyone to raise their game. I think next year when these suits are out it will be much better because it will be back to everybody head-to-head on the same playing field."

Burnett’s disappointment continued in the 4x100m medley relay as the British quartet were thrown out of the final after Michael Rock set off for his butterfly leg too early.

The 26-year-old had high hopes for the final after clocking a new 100m freestyle personal best of 47.37 seconds in the heats but was quick to address Britain’s failures on the last night in Rome.

"Unfortunately an error cost us in the final but the medley relay is always such a hard event - maybe even more so now," added Burnett.

"We always used to think of ourselves at around about fifth or sixth in the world but now there are so many teams that have so much depth and people swimming so fast we are anywhere from fifth right through to ninth."

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