Australia demands probe of triple jump
final at 1980 Games
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[July 25, 2015]
MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Australia has
demanded an investigation into the triple jump final at the 1980 Moscow
Olympics, claiming scientific evidence that local athlete Ian Campbell
was wrongly denied a gold-medal winning jump.
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Athletics Australia said on Saturday they had also called on the
IAAF to probe the women's 200 meters final at the 1948 Games in
London, saying Shirley Strickland de la Hunty had missed out on a
bronze due to an incorrect call by an official.
Campbell's third attempt at Moscow landed between the Olympic record
marker of 17.39m and the then-world record of 17.89m but he was
fouled for scraping his foot along the ground when entering the jump
phase.
Campbell and the Australian athletics section manager's protests
were dismissed and Russian Jaak Uudmae was awarded the gold for a
jump of 17.35m.
On the 35th anniversary of the final, AA said it would submit a
report to the IAAF which showed Campbell had not scraped his foot
and his third jump was 17.51m -- within "an uncertainty of no more
than four centimeters."
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The report, which had been verified by "international expert
reviewers", was based on a study conducted by a local university in
Melbourne which had used video footage from the original broadcast
to estimate Campbell's jump, AA President David Grace said in a
statement.
"If confirmed, (AA will) request the IAAF to call upon the IOC to
recognize Campbell’s third round attempt as a legitimate jump and to
reverse the foul call.
"It is hoped that this will produce a re-adjustment of the event
results and result in a gold medal being awarded by the IOC to
Campbell."
Strickland de la Hunty placed fourth in the 200m final at London but
was not given the benefit of a photo review of the finish.
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"Later examination of the photo finish film has revealed that she
clearly finished in third place albeit by a slim margin," Grace
said.
AA cited the precedent of the IAAF's decision to award a second
bronze to Frenchwoman Michele Chardonnet some four months after she
was placed fourth in the 100m hurdles final at the 1984 Los Angeles
Games.
The IAAF ruled that Chardonnet and American Kim Turner had finished
in a dead heat.
"Advances in science over time have allowed sporting organizations
to discover and detect errors in results that have occurred many
years in the past," Grace said.
"To correct these errors, even after so many years, is the just and
right thing to do."
(Reporting by Ian Ransom, editing by Amlan Chakraborty)
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