SWIM Bournemouth’s Luke Raggett says he feels “embarrassed and humiliated” after his dream of competing in next week’s ASA National Youth Championships at Sheffield was ended by what he believed was a cruel and elaborate hoax.

The 17-year-old was training hard for what he expected to be his swansong as a club swimmer before heading off to university in September.

Then his mother received a call telling him the ASA had withdrawn his entry and he would not be able to compete after all.

Jane Davies, swimming co-ordinator for the ASA and British Swimming, told the Echo: “He is not going because he did not achieve a qualifying time. But he did enter with a time. The ASA are investigating it.”

The 200m butterfly time that Raggett entered was 2:10.21, which at one point appeared on the British rankings as having been achieved on May 21 in the long course Bracknell and Wokingham Open Meet at Aldershot.

But the online meet results show Raggett’s time at the Garrison Pool as 2:22.52 – 11 seconds outside the national qualifying time.

Davies added that the ASA were also investigating how a false time found its way on to the British rankings, enabling Raggett to enter a national championship.

“The rankings department are pretty good at ensuring they get bone fide information,” she said. “Someone with swimming knowledge went to a lot of trouble to get this on the rankings and I would like to know who it is.”

Raggett confirmed that the time that appeared on Aldershot’s scoreboard on May 21 was 2:22.52. But he said that two or three weeks later he received an email from someone called ‘Suzanne’ at Bracknell and Wokingham SC telling him that the 200m butterfly results were incorrect.

Later, he received a second email saying the revised time had been accepted by the ASA. “I didn’t get too excited at first but when it appeared on the rankings, I thought it might be true,” he said.

“Once it was on the rankings, I submitted my entry to the nationals.”

Raggett said he was “very upset” when he learned last week that the 2:10 time was fake. “It’s a huge disappointment because I was getting so excited ahead of the nationals. Whoever did this is a very cruel person and I don’t know what they have achieved out of it. I haven’t trained since last week. I feel humiliated.”

Swim Bournemouth said in a statement: “As a club, we can’t comment on the individual details of the situation. We are aware of the situation with British rankings and, as a club, we are supporting Luke through this.”

Stuart Fillingham, open meet organiser for Bracknell and Wokingham SC, said there was no problem with the electronic timing at Aldershot and times were duly submitted to ASA rankings.

“Subsequently it was brought to my attention that the times I had submitted for heat three of the male 200m butterfly had been changed on the rankings,” he said.

“I got in touch with rankings to find out how and why this had happened and the times were changed back. It’s an unusual situation and we would all like to know where these emails came from.”

He added that club secretary Suzanne Parnham had confirmed that the emails were not sent by her.