By Duncan Mackay at the Main Press Centre on the Olympic Park in London

Lisa Norden_in_photo_finish_London_2012_Hyde_Park_August_4_2012August 11 - An appeal from Sweden to have Lisa Norden upgraded to equal first in the women's Olympic triathlon has been rejected by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), they announced today.


Switzerland's Nicola Spirig was ruled to have won gold following an unprecedented photo-finish on last Saturday (August 4).

Sweden appealed to the CAS, insisting it was not possible for officials to "distinguish precisely" the position of Spirig's torso.

Judges had ruled that Spirig's winning margin was less than 15 centimetres, although an official photograph appeared to show Norden's head crossing the finish first.

But the International Triathlon Union (ITU) insisted two cameras on the line showed the Swiss athlete's torso ahead of the Swede's, a decision endorsed by a special CAS panel sitting in London which was headed by British lawyer Stuart McInnes.

Lisa Norden_photo_finish_Omega_picture_Londo_2012_Hyde_Park_August_4_2012Sweden claim that Lisa Norden should be awarded a joint share of the gold medal after this photo-finish with Switzerland's Nicola Spirig

"[The Panel] denied the application in view of the fact that there was no violation of any ITU rule and that the matter concerned a 'field-of-play decision, which, according to long standing CAS jurisprudence, is unable to be reviewed by CAS panels except in the event that there has been arbitrariness or bad faith in arriving at such decision," said the panel in a written decision.

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