Officials in more fights for medals

British team chiefs were today preparing for a battle to win three new Olympic medals - in the Holiday Inn in Athens.

Hot on the heels of the protest to upgrade two British medals in the equestrian three-day event, swimming team officials will now fight to secure a bronze for James Goddard.

Both cases are set to be heard over the next couple of days by the independent Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which has set up shop in a meeting room at the city centre hotel.

If successful, Goddard would be awarded his bronze in the 200m backstroke, Leslie Law would be promoted from individual eventing silver to gold and his team from bronze to silver.

Goddard finished fourth in the race but was promoted to bronze after American winner Aaron Peirsol was disqualified by the chief referee for an illegal final turn.

Twenty minutes later the decision was overturned-Peirsol's disqualification had not been accepted by swimming's international governing body FINA because the Singaporean referee, Woon Sui Kut, had submitted a report which could not be understood, seemingly because it wasn't written in French or English.

An hour later, Britain then counter-appealed with coach Bill Sweetenham releasing a statement which expressed his extreme disappointment. He declared that "to have an infringement overturned because of incompetent paperwork is nonsensical".