The Bermuda Amateur Swimming Association has launched an inquiry into a controversy that marred last weekend’s Validus Bermuda National Championships at the National Sports Centre, The Royal Gazette understands.

At the centre of the dispute is the gender of an Indian swimmer who swam the fifth fastest time this year in the women’s 50?metres breaststroke during the preliminary heats on Sunday.

Pryanka Priyadrshni, who hails from New Delhi, swam a blistering 30.88sec, shaving more than four seconds off her personal best.

But doubts were raised as to whether the 17-year-old actually took to the starting blocks, with many observers at the Aquatics Centre claiming that a male swimmer competed in her place instead.

Yet, despite widespread concerns, no evidence supporting this claim was provided and no protest submitted after the controversial race.

Furthermore, Priyadrshni denies any wrongdoing and is adamant that it was she, and not anyone else, who competed in the race.

“I, Pryanka Priyadrshni, swam that race,” she told The Royal Gazette. “These allegations are totally unfair.”

However, one observer, who agreed to speak to this newspaper on condition of anonymity, painted an entirely different picture.

“I was on the far side [northern side] of the pool, so I had an unobstructed view of the event,” the source said. “I was watching the event and obviously I knew Lisa Blackburn is in the event and I said to the person next to me ‘Who is that next to Lisa?’ because the girl next to Lisa was completely covered in a black, long parka coat with a hood over their head.

“She had on her cap and very large goggles that cover a lot of the face. She kept the clothing on until it was the time to get on the blocks and when she took her robe and stuff off and got up on the blocks, I was like ‘Holy cow, that girl is big!’ And then when she hit the water, Lisa was left in the dust and I was thinking that girl swims like a guy.

“Obviously something struck a chord with me because when I was looking at the girl on the block you could see that the muscle back area was like hanging out of the suit not like a normal girl would be. If a girl is large, she would usually have large breasts and I noticed this girl did not have large breasts but with a compression suit they could have been squished down.”

Suspicions were heightened further over the lack of excitement from a swimmer who has just qualified for the Commonwealth Games, Youth Olympics and the World Championships and recorded a personal best.

“After she just blew the field away, the next thing that struck me odd was that this person was not celebrating,” the observer continued. “This person is up against the bulkhead of the pool with their head down, doing nothing.

“You have just qualified for the Commonwealth Games, Youth Olympics and World Swimming Championships and you are not celebrating — and I thought this was just weird.

“And then when the rest of the field comes in, she immediately hops up over the bulkhead, which is odd in itself because the rules of the swim meet were that you had to exit the pool from either side.

“She would have had to have gone over three or four lanes to get to the ladder on the side of the pool to exit the pool in the proper manner. But she did not do that and went straight up over her end of the bulkhead and ran to the bathroom.

“She then came out of the bathroom 15 to 20 seconds later and she is limping and I thought to myself this was not the same girl that just swam. She is much smaller and the person that was in the pool was much darker-skinned than her.

“I then walked down to the other end of the pool to check this girl out to see if what I am thinking is beginning to strike a chord or whether I am seeing things.

“I went right up to where she was sitting on the stairs having her foot attended to by the lifeguard and at this point I was convinced that this was not the same person.

”I have no proof, but my gut is just telling me something odd just happened and this is not the same person. They are not the same size, the back is not bulging out of the suit and they are not the same colour.

“The person in the water never celebrated and this person is now on the ground with an ankle injury and is not upset.

“If you do a top-five swim and you have met all those qualifying standards and you set the new Indian national record and broken a record in Bermuda and just twisted your ankle, you are not going to be upset or hysterical or cry? There was nothing; she was just flat.”

It is understood that BASA is looking into the incident with at least one overseas swimmer assisting the inquiry.