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," according to Ian Ransom of REUTERS.
Athletics Australia said on Saturday that "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." On the 35th anniversary of the final, AA said that "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.'" 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." AA President David Grace:
"Later examination of the photo finish film has revealed that she clearly finished in third place albeit by a slim margin. Advances in science over time have allowed sporting organizations to discover and detect errors in results that have occurred many years in the past. To correct these errors, even after so many years, is the just and right thing to do" (REUTERS, 7/25).
