ST DIZIER (France), Nov 17: Olympic swimming silver medallist Frederick Bousquet on Sunday criticised the French team officials which he believed deprived him of a gold medal in Beijing.

France were beaten to the men’s 4x100m gold medal by the USA by just 0.08sec and Bousquet, who set a new French short course 100m butterfly record of 51.00sec at St Dizier on Sunday, said a late change in the order of the four swimmers in China cost them an Olympic title.

“I was deprived of Olympic gold,” said Bousquet, three months after the August games, saying he still was annoyed at certain officials whom he did not name.

Bousquet said the four swimmers had decided he would do the final leg, though officials overruled that to name the 100m freestyle gold medallist in China, Alain Bernard, as the final swimmer.

The first leg swimmer Amaury Leveaux had initially revealed the problem about the order and Bernard himself had said “there had been a last-minute change.” The second leg swimmer was Fabien Gilot.—AFP