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Australia's Paralympians have been told to maintain a sense of sportsmanship after an athlete's refusal to shake the hand of her 16-year-old British rival.
Triple Paralympian Amanda Fraser had just been awarded bronze in the women's discus but caused a stir at the end of competition when she declined to congratulate silver medal winner Rebecca Chin.
Fraser's outburst was believed to have stemmed from anger about Chin's classification, which had the British athlete compete in her F37/38 cerebral palsy category.
But in a shocking development seemingly unrelated to the podium impasse, classifiers later reassessed the teenager's disability category, stripping her of her medal and elevating Fraser to silver.
According to official Games results, the 16-year-old has been removed from the final placings.
Australian Paralympic Committee (APC) chief Darren Peters said athletes had since been issued a directive reminding them to "maintain and uphold good sportsmanship".
Although not mentioning Fraser by name, Peters said her actions, regardless of the circumstances behind it, were "totally unacceptable and against the APC code of conduct".
It comes just hours after Kurt Fearnley was praised for his decision not to pursue protest action which would have given him a second crack at gold - and his British arch-rival - in the 800m.
Fearnley finished second, little more than a 10th of a second behind his long-time nemesis David Weir, who won the gold.
But Australian officials launched an immediate appeal, saying Games organisers had erred by assigning Fearnley to lane two rather than the outer lane seven.
The appeal was granted and the race was due to be re-contested, before Fearnley opted this morning to let the results stand in "the spirit of the Games and wheelchair racing generally".
Australia denied the two incidents had turned relations between the two countries frosty.
"There has always been a friendly rivalry between Australia and Great Britain. We enjoy the challenge of competing and look forward to being friends at the end of each competition," Peters said.
His British counterpart Phil Lane thanked Australia for the decision, saying justice had been done.
"We would like to join the Jury of Appeal in thanking the team staff of Australia, especially the athlete involved, Kurt Fearnley, for their support in helping to have the decision to re-run the race overturned," he said.
"It was a superb performance by Dave Weir to win the gold medal and justice has been done."
Fraser will be awarded her silver medal tonight.
- AAP
