So, Italians, with permission of their federation, will wear the banned Jaked01 at their trials for Rome 2009 world championships from May 26 in Pescara, it seems, in contravention of FINA rule.

The Italian federation website justifies its position on the FIN website today for the following reasons:

• Out of respect for the teams, the swimmers, the makers of technical equipment
• To honour the investment made by families in the equipment.
• To avoid further confusion on the subject
• To guarantee fair competition
• Because some suits may still make it on to FINA's list

The host nation of the 2009 world championships has lost all sense of reason and balance. Are they mad? It was, after all, Alberto Castagnetti, head coach, who described the Speedo LZR as technological doping. How then is a suit that is worse still than the LZR as a skimming device aimed at buoying swimmers beyond their natural capacity not technological doping?

Of course, easy to understand that the Italian federation, having ditched arena in a desperate attempt to find a booster suit in time for Beijing and having turned to Jaked, would now feel somewhat aggrieved to find its baby has been washed out with the bath water. 

Nonetheless, Jaked makes other suits, suits that were worn by the Italian team in Beijing. Those models are approved. The Jaked01 is not. As such the following can be knocked down with a feather:

• Out of respect for the teams, the swimmers, the makers of technical equipment: respect is not to be gained in a lie or in illegal use of suits
• To honour the investment made by families in the equipment: let the federation of Italy foot the bill, after all, it knew that tests were underway and still led its nation down the garden path of performance-enhancement
• To avoid further confusion on the subject: using the Jaked01 will pour heaps of confusion on the issue - by delivering a ton of times that will count for nothing; by loading the national record book with false times that may be hard to beat; by loading the world rankings with another tier of nonsense.
• To guarantee fair competition - that's rich, no comment required.
• Because some suits may still make it on to FINA's list: not in current form they won't, not in the form that would be worn in Pescara. 

Italy's first round of "trials" for Roma 2009 were swum in Jaked01s and other boosters now banned. That is no argument for using what are now illegal suits.

Italy, some reports suggest, is confident that a Jaked legal challenge will succeed. The question is: why would Italy and Signor Castagnetti of the "techno doping" quote - a man I could agree with wholeheartedly until his swimmer wore two suits on the way to winning an Olympic title - wish to fight FOR performance-enhancement and more techno doping? 

The answer is: because the LZR is still in the water. 

It ought not to be for much longer. Indeed, there is good reason to believe that it will not make it past January 1, 2010 - so if you feel an urge to buy one, caveat emptor and keep collector's item in mind, as opposed to long-term use. Oh, sorry, I forgot, at $500 a pop they don't last that long, according to swimmers. Silly me. 

Meanwhile, FINA's response to Italy should be clear: not a single Jaked01 time should be submitted as an official entry for the world championships, nor should a single record count. The suit is illegal.