'Ruthless' Aussie seizes gold medal

Australians ruthless at their sport? If there ever was an instance that screamed out the answer "yes", it came last Sunday night at the Melbourne Cricket Ground athletics.

The Commonwealth Games were winding to a close and one of the final events on the track was the 4 X 400m women's relay.

England won by more than 10 metres, but was disqualified after a protest by the Australian team, which was subsequently awarded the gold medal.

After the race, Tamsyn Lewis, who ran the third leg for Australia, told her teammates that England's Natasha Danvers had moved to her inside ahead of the second baton change.

Under the rules, runners are sent onto the track by officials in the same order as their incoming athletes reach the 200m mark. At that stage, Australia was running second behind Jamaica with England's Nicola Sanders third, but closing fast.

Danvers should not have placed herself on Lewis' inside, but there was no correction by officials and no contact with Lewis.

What stuck in the the British craw was that Lewis made no attempt to take back her position, instead waiting until after the race to lodge a protest.

"Ooh yeah, I was aware of it," she laughed afterwards. "I couldn't get many words out after my race but I managed to get it out to the girls that England should be disqualified because they jumped in front.

"It is an unfortunate thing to happen because rules are rules and I am happy with gold."

Gold at all cost, it seems.

The English athletes were furious. "The protest was not warranted," said Danvers. "It is not fair. We deserved gold. We were clearly ahead. I was concentrating on my runner Nicola Sanders coming down the straight, nothing else. I was not concentrating on Tamsyn. I have not heard good things about Tamsyn."

Danvers-Smith's husband and coach Darrell Smith was blunter.

"It is a very unprofessional way to achieve a gold medal. Just because you are at home does not give you the right to win at all costs. It is cheating."

England's Daily Telegraph called it a "disgraceful act of gamesmanship that went against the spirit of the so-called Friendly Games".

Although the incident was downplayed in the Australian media, it was revved up a few days later when Australian running great Ron Clarke dished it out his countrywomen.

"I am absolutely appalled by what went on and frankly our girls should never have accepted the medal," Clarke told Sydney's Daily Telegraph.

"How can they accept a gold medal when they were out-raced? They should give their gold medals to England without hesitation."

Officials had shown leniency to Asafa Powell when he crossed a lane during his 100m semifinal win, reportedly because the action had not inconvenienced anyone, but the English runners were shown no such compassion.

Another former star athlete, Raelene Boyle, questioned their role.

"I can't understand where the officials were throughout all this. Why wasn't he or she standing right there and instructing the runners where to position themselves. I think it could have been far better handled and common sense should have prevailed.

"What would've happened if the Australians had won clearly and the English protested... in order to get a gold medal?"

Clarke had the answer to that. "We would've become a republic." The interesting role in all of this came from Jana Pittman, who ran the last leg for Australia.

The Telegraph in London reported her saying: "I'm not associating myself with that decision. England won the gold medal."

And it said the disqualified English athletes applauded her for that stance but The Age newspaper reported that Pittman was elated when the decision was made to award Australia first placing.

"We won gold," she was quoted as saying. "We did it. We did it." But when she saw an upset Danvers she put her arm around her and stopped celebrating.

"As far as we are concerned they are the gold medallists," Pittman then said. "And we've got it by default. Ultimately they are the champions, but if we get it, we have to take it humbly. Look at it, they beat us by 10 metres.

The irony is that Pittman and Lewis are often at loggerheads. They indulged in a much-reported "catfight" in the lead-up to the Games, yet when this situation begged for Pittman to take an opposing voice to Lewis, they protested to officials together.

In another irony, the Sydney Morning Herald's Stay In Touch column this week reported on the comments of Sparc chief executive Nick Hill that New Zealanders tended to be too nice, but that Australians were extraordinarily direct and ruthless in comparison.

"Bullshit," said the Herald.

Hmm.

- NZPA