# Photo from Konya appears to explain Richo refusal

*By Simon | March 17, 2025*

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![Screenshot](https://globalkeirin.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/03/richoff.jpg)

## 󠀁[Photo from Konya appears to explain Richo refusal](https://globalkeirin.com/2025/03/photo-from-konya-appears-to-explain-richo-refusal/)󠁿

17 March 2025

Imagery circulating among the track sprint community seems to vindicate the
UCI’s decision not to ratify the world record-beating time set by
[Matthew Richardson](https://globalkeirin.com/rider/matthew-richardson/) in
sprint qualifying at the Track Nations Cup.

The UCI’s
[statement](https://prod.server.tissottiming.com/file/0003180100FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF26)
declared that their ruling was a result of ‘the last meters of the 200m distance
being ridden off the track (on the safety zone)’.

As we noted in our
[report](https://globalkeirin.com/2025/03/new-world-record-for-richo-but-no-sub-9-yet/)
, the UCI regulations define the safety zone as being the area ‘immediately
inside the blue band’ at the bottom of the track. We wrote: ‘Richardson must
have ridden quite some way off line, if he was found to have strayed beyond the
‘blue band’ into the ‘safety zone’.’

Photos emerging from Konya seem to show that’s precisely what happened:
Richardson crossed over the blue band in the home straight, and by a significant
margin too.

On that basis, it’s entirely reasonable for the UCI to have made the decision
they did.

But it’s peculiar that the race communiqué, notionally ‘approved by the
Secretary of the Commissaires Panel’, labelled the time as ‘WR’ (world record).

And it’s unfortunate that the UCI’s announcement did not include an image like
this: such clear-cut evidence would have eliminated all uncertainty, and would
have put the public on their side.

It’s also a little strange that the infraction wasn’t spotted in ‘real time’;
and the basis for allowing Richardson’s time to stand for the purpose of
seeding, but not for the record book, isn’t entirely clear.

But on the matter in hand, on the basis of this photo, we’re on the UCI’s side.

**Categories:** Original