Paralympics: Two medals despite pentathlon crash

By GREG ANSLEY

SYDNEY - New Zealand Paralympic pentathlon team-mates Dave MacCalman and Peter Martin won gold and bronze last night after a collision between the two almost cost one or both their medals.

Martin was almost guaranteed a silver when MacCalman clipped his wheel as he overtook the Hamilton athlete on the final bend of the P53 800m, forcing him off the track, resulting in MacCalman's disqualification from the race.

Officials ordered a new race without MacCalman, but on a protest by silver medallist Paulo DAgostino, of Italy, the re-run was cancelled and the medals decided on points accumulated before the race.

And in another startling development, equestrian officials yesterday discovered a counting error in the results of Thursday's grade 4 mixed individual test, pushing Auckland rider Jayne Craike from silver to gold.

It was New Zealand's fifth gold in the Games.

Elsewhere, Hamilton swimmer Sean Trethaway, in the S9 100m backstroke, and visually impaired Wellington runner Tim Prendergast, in the T13 1500m, won two more silvers.

Prendergast ran an aggressive race, leading through the 800m and 1200m mark, but he was tracked all the way by Tunisian Maher Bouallegue.

As with the 800m final a week ago, Bouallegue had too much kick in the home straight.

The MacCalman-Martin disaster came at the end of a pentathlon dominated by the pair, already both gold-medal winners - MacCalman in the javelin and Martin in the shot-put, also a controversial decision after the disqualification of an American athlete.

Martin was too distraught to talk to journalists, waiting in silence for a shaken MacCalman to join him.

"It's not good enough, it's not good," MacCalman said.

"Pete basically died and I was trying to come around and take the lead.

"A lot of the time the person in the lead moves into lane two.

"I was waiting for Pete to move over but he didn't, so I tried to go around him on the bend."

MacCalman clipped Martin's wheel, forcing him off the track and out of the race.

"We tried to do it as a combo, but we messed it up as a combo," MacCalman said.

Craike's recount dropped Norway's Ann Evenrud to silver, kept bronze for Britain's Kay Gebbie, but dumped Denmark's Charlotte Jensen from equal third to fourth.

Jensen's medal loss was a double blow - the Danish had noticed mistakes in their scores and sought the recount.

Craike, riding Neversfelde Samonienen, was given a total mark of 596 following the event, placing her second behind Evenrud on 610.

However, further examination of the marks showed Craike should have earned 611 points, giving her the gold by one point.

Craike last night was out with her family and was not aware of her gold, but manager Rachel Bird was elated.

"You wouldn't expect anything like this to happen in an international competition.

"I'm happy, but no-one else is."

She said she was stunned when she heard the news.

"It's just incredible, I've never seen anything like this before," said Bird, who had not initially spotted the mistake.

"I hadn't actually collected the sheet. Usually I get the scores and add them up to double check, but we were training early this morning so I didn't."

The Danes had seen the mistake - a manual error had occurred with the formula used to calculate points - and officials notified all riders yesterday afternoon.

Bird met Norwegian officials and Evenrud shortly afterwards.

"It's great for us but not too great for the others," Bird said.

"There were some tears from the Norwegian team, they were absolutely distraught."

Bird said Norway were not considering a protest.

"It's been checked over and over again and it is the correct result."

Click here for Herald Online Olympic/Paralympic News