Confusing women's 100 takes another strange twist

NEW DELHI (AP):

If you had three chances to guess who would win the women's 100-metre gold medal at the Commonwealth Games, you could pick three different names and be right each time.

Sally Pearson originally won the race, crossing the finish line in 11.28 seconds last Thursday and even got to do a victory lap at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium with an Australian flag draped over her.

But she was disqualified hours later for a previous false start, handing the gold medal to Osayomi Oludamola. The Nigerian runner ended up being the one who stood atop the podium listening to her national anthem with the gold medal draped around her neck.

On Monday, however, the Commonwealth Games Federation said Oludamola tested positive for a banned substance. That means the Nigerian could be stripped of her title, leaving Natasha Mayers of St Vincent and the Grenadines as the possible champion of a race cloaked in controversy.

It's also a bizarre, once-in-a-lifetime triple for Mayers. The Caribbean sprinter became the first person from her country to win a medal in track at the Commonwealth Games when she first earned bronze last Thursday in 11.37 seconds. A few hours later, that became a silver medal. And now, if Oludamola's "B'' sample is positive and she is disqualified, that could turn into gold.

"It has been a horrible week," Pearson said of her disqualification after finally winning gold in the 100m hurdles yesterday.

The problems three days earlier started a fraction of a second before the race actually did.

False start

Laura Turner of England tripped the false-start metre just before the gun and replays showed Pearson also false started, but a fraction of an instant later than Turner.

An official walked out onto the track and gave Turner a red card, though he should have also given one to Pearson, who had acted as if she knew she would be disqualified after the false start.

Turner, however, refused to leave the track, using her right to run the race under protest. Pearson just stayed in her lane.

The gun went off again and Pearson won relatively easily, followed by Oludamola and Mayers, allowing all three to celebrate their medals. Turner was disqualified after finishing eighth.

But then the England team, which still stood to gain a bronze medal from fourth-place finisher Katherine Endacott, got involved and protested Pearson's running of the race. England won the protest, with the jury of appeal deciding that the Australian's false start was so close to Turner's that she could not have been influenced by the Englishwoman.

Yesterday morning, Commonwealth Games Federation president, Mike Fennell, threw the race into further turmoil when he announced that Oludamola had tested positive for the banned stimulant Methylexanemine.

A Federal Court hearing involving Fennell, lawyers and World Anti-Doping Agency observers ruled that Oludamola's provisional suspension would continue until the "B'' sample results were received, which would be tomorrow at the earliest.

"If the allegations are true it's most unfortunate for us," Nigeria chef de mission Elias Gora said. "I'm disappointed and I'm sure people back home will also be disappointed, too."

So if you guessed Mayers as the 100-metre champion, hang on and see if you're a winner, too.