Sports court rejects Swedish triathlon appeal

Sweden's bid to have Lisa Norden upgraded to women's triathlon gold after the event's first photo finish at an Olympics was shot down by a specialist sports tribunal on Saturday. The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) dismissed Sweden's appeal, which sought to have Norden awarded a joint gold medal along with Switzerland's Nicola Spirig after they clocked identical times in last week's race. After a gruelling 1.5km swim, 43km bike ride and 10km run at London's Hyde Park, Norden and Spirig sprinted neck-and-neck to the line with both timed at 1hr 59min 48sec. Spirig was awarded gold on photo evidence. But Sweden maintained that because Norden was leaning backwards when she crossed the line, and the lower part of her torso was not in the photo studied by the referee, it was impossible to know who had finished first. However a CAS panel sitting at the London Olympics decided it could not review a "field of play" decision by a referee who was acting in good faith. "Having reviewed the photo-finish images, the referee decided that the Swiss athlete's torso crossed the line first," the panel said on its judgement. "Because this is a field-of-play decision, the CAS will not review it in the absence of arbitrariness or bad faith." Australia's Erin Densham finished behind Spirig and Norden in what was the closest triathlon in Olympic history.