Newz Forum: OLYMPICS: Britains Walsh takes Silver in the K1

Great Britain were involved in more medal-swapping mayhem as Campbell Walsh clinched a dramatic silver in the K1 kayak slalom final.

Following hot on the heels of the eventing controversy which saw Britain's eventers moved from bronze to silver and back to bronze again earlier this week, and Thursday night's drama in the swimming pool involving James Goddard, Team GB came out on top this time.

After initially thinking he had won a bronze, Scot Walsh saw his medal upgraded following timing changes which were blamed on inaccurate readings from the automatic timing cameras.

Fabien Lefevre thought he had won silver after clocking a quicker time than Walsh, but the times were altered, with Walsh clocking a score of 190.17 seconds and Lefevre 190.99.

The official explanation from the results service said that Walsh's finish time was changed "due to water projection in the starting photocells just before the start", while Lefevre finished his run "under the automatic camera so his time was taken manually".

The changes came as a welcome relief for Walsh, who lost out on gold after mistakenly thinking he heard the commentator say he was leading heading into the last few gates.

Walsh's bronze was the second British canoeing medal in Athens following Helen Reeves' bronze in the women's K1 on Wednesday, and it was also the fifth medal in the sport for British athletes overall since the Barcelona Games in 1992.

Sporting Life

[Edited on 20/8/04 by TRD]