Osayomi takes 'delayed' 100m Gold for Nigeria at Commonwealth Games

Nigeria's Damola Osayomi has been declared the winner of the women's 100 metres after Australia lost an appeal to have Sally Pearson's disqualification overturned on Thursday at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi.

Pearson, who crossed the line first in 11.28 seconds, ahead of the Nigerian, was stripped of the gold medal for a false start four hours after the race following an appeal by England.

Australia had lodged a counter-appeal after England successfully appealed against Pearson's win, but she was left in tears after the counter-appeal was dismissed.

The whole drama in the final began when Laura Turner of England was disqualified for false-starting and later allowed to run after she refused to leave the track protesting she wasn't the only one as Pearson who also jumped the gun should have been dismissed as well.

However, Turner came last and was later officially disqualified prompting a protest by the English team whose second runner Katherine Endacott had been pushed into fourth place.

Justice was finally served as Osayomi, who finished second in 11.32 seconds was uplighted to Gold and Natasha Mayers of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines moved to Silver with her 11.37 seconds finish while England's Katherine Endacott (11.44) was handed the Bronze medal.

Nigeria was believed to have lodged a secondary protest but it's currently unclear which of the two protests was upheld resulting in Pearson losing her gold, but IAAF appeals juror Abby Hoffman refuted that.

"The protest was not to reinstate the original person who ran under protest. The protest was for the disqualification of another athlete," said Hoffman. "To my knowledge Nigeria is not involved. It's England."

On winning Silver, Osayomi said: "I already have two Golds, one Bronze and now one Silver [this year]. I am happy with this, because this was my first Commonwealth Games."

And on the delay to the race due to a false start, she added: "Something went wrong with the start. I dont know why they allow people to participate in the competition if they cannot follow the rules. In small competitions it happens, but in very big ones they shouldn't be allowed to make a false start."

In another race, Simon Patmore of Australia won the T46 men’s 100m for elite athletes with a disability in a time of 11.14 seconds. Samkelo Mike Radebe of South Africa was second and Ayuba Abdullah of Nigeria was third.