The company in charge of the electronic timing system at the world swimming championships has admitted the touchpads that have caused so much trouble were not tested before the start of the competition.
Japanese manufacturer Seiko, asked to explain why there had been so many problems with the timing mechanism, apologised for the confusion surrounding official times in more than a dozen races during the championships.
"We didn't test these specific touchpads, but we tested pads with the same specifications in another pool earlier this month," said Akihito Suehiro, general manager of Seiko's sports timing department. "We're sorry to have upset the athletes."
Suehiro confirmed there had been 16 official adjustments to race times since the start of competition last Sunday, following two more hiccups in this morning's heats.
His comments followed grave concern expressed by top international coaches about the timing system's failures, as well as their criticism of the way the sport's governing body FINA had handled the problems.
FINA, who initially denied there had been problems, finally conceded that the timing system had malfunctioned after two more embarrassing mix-ups occurred on Friday, one in the men's 100 metres freestyle final and the other involving the Australian 4x200 freestyle relay team.
In the 100 freestyle, American Anthony Ervin won but the electronic scoreboard registered no time for him and initially showed Olympic champion Pieter van den Hoogenband as winner.
"The sensors on the touchpads are set at 1.5 kilograms of pressure. Sometimes the swimmer's touch is too soft to register, if they brush the pad diagonally, for example," Suehiro said, adding that Ervin's time had been calculated from the back-up video.
However, a number of coaches and team officials said that the explanation by FINA and Seiko "defies common sense," particularly in a sprint race.
American swimming's national director Dennis Pursley said: "In the 100 metres, the swimmers are going so fast there's no way they don't get enough pressure."
In the relay, Germany, backed by Britain and the Americans, protested to FINA after learning that a race referee had altered one of the change-over times in the heats.
A timing malfunction had indicated that one of the Australian swimmers had jumped the gun and dived in before his team mate had arrived.
The referee amended the time to show there had been no infringement after reviewing the back-up tape. The protesting teams were not given access to the tape but Germany withdrew their protest after they were shown television footage proving there had been no infringement.
FINA spokesman Sam Ramsamy, who drew gasps from reporters when he brushed off the 16 corrected times as "isolated incidents," has said that FINA has no plans to review its decision.