Commonwealth Games Federation chief Michael Fennell today expressed disappointment at the "major communication blunder" which led to modification of results in the controversial women's 100m final last night.
Commonwealth Games Federation chief Michael Fennell today expressed disappointment at the "major communication blunder" which led to modification of results in the controversial women's 100m final last night and said he has "alerted" officials of other disciplines to ensure that such mistakes are not committed.
English runner Laura Turner was shown the red card by the race referee for a false start but Australian Sally Pearson also appeared to jump the gun and she was seen as putting her hands over her face in despair.
Turner and Pearson were bizarrely allowed to run. The former finished last and was later officially disqualified while the later emerged winner with an effort of 11.28secs.
England lodged an official complaint and the jury of appeal ruled that Pearson had also a false start. She was stripped of her gold medal and Osayemi Oludamola from Nigeria, who ran 11.32secs behind Pearson, was declared the winner.
"There was a problem in the women's 100m. There was protest (from England team) but that was not brought to the notice of the technical officials. There was a major communication blunder," Fennell said.
"We are not happy with the way the protesting athletes were being handled. We have issued alerts to all people responsible for holding other sports that such incidents should not happen in future and such protests should be handled properly," he said.
"But I am happy that the hearing by the jury was held under rules," he added.
Fennell said the reported food poisoning of some swimmers from Australia and England was not due to contamination of the water at the pools.
"We have tested three swimming pools -- at the Games Village, warm-up pool at the venue and actual competition pool. We have got the report and there is no problem. We are satisfied with the swimming pools. The problems to these swimmers could be from other things," he said.
"We have spoken to the Australian and English teams and it is not as widespread as the media projected. We are satisfied that all necessary checks have been done at the swimming pools. We have spoken to other teams and they do not have such problems," he added.
When asked by a scribe whether the conditions of hygiene were up to the standard for a mega event, Fennell said, "I cannot comment on it. All aspects will be looked into. We will continue to monitor."
Fennell said that the scoreboard which was reported to have collapsed at the Rugby Sevens venue has been put in place though he is ascertaining the facts on how it happened.
"We should not jump to conclusions without proper understanding of facts. We are trying to know how it happened but it has been fixed," he said.
Regarding the glitches at the Games Information System, Fennell said all the problems would be rectified by today.
"It (GIS) is so central to the smooth conduct of the Games. This problem should have been rectified earlier. All the people worked the whole night but the problem has not been resolved upto this morning. The concerned people said it will be OK by this afternoon or tonight," said Fennell.
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