Sally in Delhi double!

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Aussie stripped of 100m Games gold

Sally Pearson has been sensationally stripped of her gold medal in the women’s 100m after a night of high drama at the Delhi Games.

Four hours after Pearson managed a surprise victory in the event, Pearson officially lost the race after it was deemed she had false-started in the marquee event.

Australia had lodged a counter-appeal after England successfully appealed against Pearson’s win. The Australian was left in tears after the counter-appeal was dismissed.

The unexpected drama began when English runner Laura Turner was disqualified for false-starting in the final, although it appeared that Pearson may have also jumped the gun.

Confusingly Turner was still allowed to run in the final once the field had been recalled, although she came last and was later officially disqualified.

The athletics program descended into high farce as Pearson’s surprise gold medal hung in the balance for close to four hours.

“I don’t know who the protest is about. That’s all I can tell you,” Pearson told reporters in the aftermath of her race.

“I got told it was cleared and I am the gold medallist. Now I’m not and I have to wait. It’s been pretty disastrous and emotionally a huge rollercoaster. That happens in sport. You just have to be patient and see what happens.”

Amid mass confusion at the Jawaharlal Nehru Sports Complex, Pearson’s coach, Sharon Hannan, said: “At the moment the protest has been upheld and Sally has been disqualified.”

England initially lodged a protest over Pearson’s first place, claiming the Australian sprinter and England rival Turner had “dead heated” in false starting out of the blocks, even though official timers ruled Turner had broken 0.001 sec before Pearson.

An anxious and confusing period ensued as Pearson awaited her fate. She was told by at least one official that England’s appeal had been dismissed and to prepare for the medals ceremony, but by the end of the night’s program Pearson had yet to be informed of the outcome.

“I don’t know what’s going on,” a clearly emotional Pearson said as she was escorted from the track by team officials.

Nigeria is believed to have lodged a secondary protest but it’s currently unclear which of the two protests was upheld resulting in Pearson losing her gold.

IAAP appeals juror Abby Hoffman said: "The protest was not to reinstate the original person who ran under protest. The protest was for the disqualification of another athlete.

“To my knowledge Nigeria is not involved. It’s England.”

The medal ceremony in the women’s 100m was not conducted, and will instead proceed a day after the race was completed. The Sydney Morning Herald understands that medal presentation officials had been told to present the gold to Pearson this morning (NZ time), and arranged the flags accordingly, but were stopped at the last minute, reportedly due to a secondary appeal lodged by the Nigerian team.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/commonwealth-games/athletics/4210530/Aussie-stripped-of-100m-Games-gold

FINAL ONLY

//youtu.be/MlwRzhzdRgM

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In that video - You could see one girl broke in lane 4 and is clearly led out - Sally is in lane 6 and if you pause it into the 1st step, she got no advantage i can see - a good 5 girls look to be infront of her.

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In that video - You could see one girl broke in lane 4 and is clearly led out - Sally is in lane 6 and if you pause it into the 1st step, she got no advantage i can see - a good 5 girls look to be infront of her.

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In that video - You could see one girl broke in lane 4 and is clearly led out - Sally is in lane 6 and if you pause it into the 1st step, she got no advantage i can see - a good 5 girls look to be infront of her.

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In that video - You could see one girl broke in lane 4 and is clearly led out - Sally is in lane 6 and if you pause it into the 1st step, she got no advantage i can see - a good 5 girls look to be infront of her.

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In that video - You could see one girl broke in lane 4 and is clearly led out - Sally is in lane 6 and if you pause it into the 1st step, she got no advantage i can see - a good 5 girls look to be infront of her.

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The DQ is justified as they both clearly broke on the first attempt. Since Sally broke only 0.001s after Laura Turner, you can’t really argue that her false start was triggered by Laura’s. The tragedy of the situation is just that they let her win the race and go on a victory lap, etc. before finally stripping her of her gold medal.

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I understand that JS had to run at the selection trials as this was a pre-condition for selection. He had back surgery 13 wks prior to the Nationals and therefore had sufficient medical reasons for not racing. AA was negligent & arrogant in stipulating that JS had to race or he could miss selection. Now Sally didn’t compete at the selection trials and at the eleventh hour is given the nod by AA. How is this fair or consistent? This decision can only be viewed as massive favouritism and discrimination by AA.

This decision extends to other athletes. Why wasn’t PJ selected for an individual 100m or 200m spot? He had an A qualifier in the 100 & B qualifier in 200 ( 1st at Nationals). AA has agreed that PJ at 37 PJ is too old and he would need to meet the strict criteria to achieve selection in the individual event. He would need to win the nationals in the A qualifying standard. PJ is being discriminating because of his age.

AA has used the strict selection criteria for both PJ and JS. However when it comes it the golden girl Sally, no need to race at nationals (100m), no need to achieve the A standard (100m).
In interviews after the heats Sally told Fox sports reporter Matt Shirvington that she felt good in a recent 150m race in England & decided to run the individual 100m. If JS requested selection based on a good 300m, would it be granted?

I put aside personal relationship in this matter and I am just an objective observer in all of this. I am perplexed by the unjust, unfair, discriminatory application of the selection policy by AA.

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I hope that Sally can get some revenge and win the hurdles race, similar to that of the cyclist Perkin’s win in the sprint after his DQ in the kieren.

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As far as I know, JS was told that discretionary selection was possible but could not be guaranteed should he miss nationals due to the great depth in the men’s 400m. I agree that PJ was dealt with harshly, although his 100m A qualifier was suspect, he didn’t perform in the 100m at nationals and won the 200m in the absence of the current best runner. Sally was a clear medal prospect in the 100m, and not selecting her would have been a huge mistake.

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I see, tough situation! That’s why you should stick to the rules, or give everyone a chance, I guess.

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Hi Robin1,

Wondering why PJ’s 100m A Qualifier suspect?

cheers

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I can’t comment on PJs situation, but John wasn’t required to run at nationals. He was told that they couldn’t hold a spot open for him so if there were three qualifiers he would not get an individual spot.

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It was set on a new track in Perth which made everyone 0.2s faster until they held Nationals there and the times suddenly dropped back to “normal”. The three men’s 100m A qualifiers where all achieved on this track prior to Nationals. There is a thread about this issue somewhere on this site.

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Oludamola stripped of gold medal as Pearson steps up attacks
October 13, 2010

Stripped . . . Osayemi Oludamola of Nigeria has relinquished her gold medal for the 100 metres after testing positive to a banned stimulant.

Stripped . . . Osayemi Oludamola of Nigeria has relinquished her gold medal for the 100 metres after testing positive to a banned stimulant. Photo: Reuters

In the latest twist to the bizarre women’s 100m sprint at the Delhi Commonwealth Games, the woman who was third across the line is now the gold medallist.

St Vincent and the Grenadines sprinter Natasha Mayers has been awarded the gold following the suspension of Nigerian Osayemi Oludamola for a positive drugs test.

The race took just over 11 seconds to complete, but it took five days to find an official winner.
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Oludamola initially finished second in a race won by Australian Sally Pearson, who was later disqualified for an earlier false start.

The Commonwealth Games Federation on Tuesday said testing of Oludamola’s ‘‘B’’ sample confirmed a finding of the prohibited substance Methylhexaneamine and she would be stripped of the gold medal.

The silver medal from the sprint has now gone to England’s Katherine Endacott while the bronze goes to Bertille Delphine Atangana of Cameroon, who was fifth past the line.

Earlier, Pearson stepped up her condemnation of Nigerian Osayemi Oludamola, who crossed the line second but was handed gold in Pearson’s ill-fated 100m final, later recording a positive test to a stimulant banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency, but set to be downgraded to ‘‘non-specified’’ status next year.

‘‘It’s good to know they’re still catching them but it’s disappointing to know there’s still a drug cheat out there,’’ said Pearson who, having been stripped of gold for a disputed false start, had called the positive test ‘‘a joke.’’

''I’m glad I still beat her. Obviously I didn’t get the medal but it’s still nice to run and know that I could beat her. It’s been a bit of a joke really but what can you do? I wasn’t a medallist on the night and I’m not now [in the 100m].

‘‘You just have to put up with it; that’s sport. I’m going out there drug-free. I’m racing to the best of my ability and what else can I do? I love the sport and I’m going to do everything I can to keep the drugs out of sport but there’s always going to be a few.’’

Pearson, who ate about five Tim Tams after her hurdles victory, said the past week had been ‘‘amazing’’.

‘’[But it’s been] the hardest week of my life,’’ she said. ‘‘I don’t know how I was able to overcome the 100 metres disappointment but I had to block it out of my mind and not think about it as much as possible. As soon as I crossed the finish line in the hurdles it all just came welling up again. It all came out.’’

AAP, Jake Niall and Andrew Stevenson

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I haven’t bothered this time to read the rules, chapter and verse, regarding the selection policy. However, often, there is often some discretionary movement within the team ranks. The hardest part is making the team in the first instance.

The use of Sally to run a leg of the 4x400m is not a new idea. Many nations will co-opt 200m stars to run a leg of the long relay - Pietro Mennea, Melinda Gainsford-Taylor (now an Aussie selector) won major medals in the 4x4.

I’m not up with the situation regarding Sally’s belated addition to the 100m sprint field. But she had a qualifying time run this year in Australia for the 100m flat.

But how special was the big technical yawn live on national tv after she did her meltdown on the 4x4 anchor. Gutsy run in more ways than one. LOL.

Respect the 400! :slight_smile:

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The other thing re John Steffensen, I think the fact that the Aussie men won the 4x4 gold today by a good four metres shows that in fact there is a bit of depth in Oz men’s 400m sprinting and perhaps, with all due respect to JS, the selectors - presumably trying to be equally fair to every 400m team contender - really could not pre-select anyone - not even Ben Offereins, who had been with JS on the 2009 Berlin world champs medal-wining relay. BO :slight_smile: had run 44.8 during the Oz season this year and was undefeated and he also had to run the National trial. And because shit happens, it was sadly Ben who “ran out of legs” by the time the team got to Delhi and he was replaced for the 4x4 final by rookie Kevin Moore who was fifth in the trial 400m final back in April.

But I do agree with Steffensen in many of his arguments - in particular the idea that Aths Aust should have held the Nationals in March and separate selection trials in September - maybe up in Townsville or Darwin or Cairns where the weather was much like Delhi at that time of year.

The problem is funding and AA do not have their act together on that front at all. Hopefully things will change soon. And Steffensen is right to query what the hell do AA spend their substantial federal government grant on each year? They got something like $5.5m a couple of months ago, so lets see them account for that sensibly in the coming 12 months or so.

What I would like to praise Steffensen for is his “mentoring” and constant support of Kevin Moore, who at 20 was definitely thrown in at the deep end but will be returning to his NSW central coast home with a 4x4 gold medal now.

Of course Steffensen is one of many who have been generous in their support for Kevin.
Melissa Babbage of DeutscheBank AG in Australia - a 1988 Olympic trials 400m finalist and former training partner of Maree Holland and Darren Clark (1988 Seoul Olympic 400m finalists), is providing personal sponsorship of the New South Wales Institute of Sport 400m Fast Track project.

This NSW400FT project has been fully embraced by Kevin’s personal coach Larry Spencer who has brought several members of his senior squad to regular Sunday morning training sessions this past 18 months. As the mentoring coach for this project, I can confirm what a joy Larry and his entire squad have been to work with.

Watch for the next cab off the rank - Matt Lynch - this summer. He seems over his injury issues of the last year and I think he too will challenge for a place on the 4x4 team for the 2011 world championships in Daegu, Sth. Korea.

Other special supporters include ChiroSports chiropractors Kate McMaster and CMichael Egan, a Canadian tri-genics expert and chiro. Both have given up their time almost every Sunday this year to attend the track or hills to provide free adjustments and muscle therapies for the NSWIS 400FT squad members.
The proof is in the pudding .

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Great effort in the 4x4 by the boys and girls.

Sally was seconded for Lauren Boden, which on the face of it seemed like a wrong call initially - I haven’t seen the race, as I was in of beauty sleep (due to a sick partner), but a hand time of 52 point seems reasonable. Sally would never take it easy in any race.

Ben Offerins, as KK said spot was given to Kevin Moore. Which I was happy with because the leg B Cole run in the heat was a great effort. I have an affection for 400m Hurdler running relays after K Akrubusi run in 1992 (?) relay.

My question is did Lauren run that badly in the heat to be removed? Or was she removed due to fatigue 3 races over 400m in 5-6 days and the other 2 girls had not run at all.

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52 seconds is a great time…was Lauren injured or sick??? They were 2nd fastest in times prior to the final…sorry guys i’m just curious to know why Lauren did not run.

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Happy Birthday Charlie.
Love
James and Ange