Dear WCA Community,
As previously announced, the WCA Disciplinary Committee investigated concerns regarding Kalindu Sachintha Wijesundara’s (2022WIJE02) FMC results at Sri Lankan Nationals FMC 2024, where means of 20.33 and 19.67 were achieved in the first and second rounds respectively.
The full investigation has now concluded. The WDC has discovered evidence of the competitor utilizing online tools and abusing his delegate status to obtain better results. The WDC also believes the competitor knowingly misled the WDC about these facts when presented with this evidence.
Given the unprecedented nature of this case and the extreme breach of trust involved, the WDC spent significant time analyzing the case and deliberating on a punishment. Some of the factors the WDC considered include, but are not limited to:
- His status as a WCA Delegate and breaking the trust that comes with that role
- Jeopardizing the results of competitions by analyzing scrambles prior to the competitions, including the use of a third party software
- Refusal to confess, even when given clear evidence
- The potential damage to the reputation of the WCA
The full punishment for Kalindu is as follows:
- A ban of 8 years from competing in all official WCA competitions
- The immediate removal of his role as Delegate by the WCA Board
- Disqualification (DNF) of all results achieved by Kalindu at competitions where he was listed as a delegate
- Exception: Kalindu did not handle scrambles for Sri Lankan Nationals 2024, so those results may remain
The WDC has no reason to doubt the validity of the results obtained by any other competitor at the affected competitions. Therefore, no other result will be affected by our decision.
WCA Delegates hold an incredible amount of responsibility and trust in ensuring fairness at WCA competitions. Any breach of this trust significantly impacts the community locally and globally. The WDC, the WCA Board, and the entire WCA Staff and community are committed to addressing any violations. Any actions that compromise these values will not be tolerated and will continue to be addressed appropriately.
We also emphasize the importance of transparency and accountability in all WCA operations. We affirm our commitment to these principles with the publication of this report to the general public. The entire report, alongside this conclusion, can be found here.
Best regards,
Shain Longbehn (WDC Leader)
On behalf of the WCA Disciplinary Committee
Source:: worldcubeassociation