CAS rejects Swedish appeal of women's triathlon results

London, England – The Court of Arbitration for Sport has denied the appeal filed by the Swedish Olympic Committee regarding the outcome of the women's triathlon.

The appeal asked the CAS to award Swedish triathlete Lisa Norden a gold medal, but the court met Friday night and rendered its final decision Saturday morning.

Norden finished the women's triathlon, which was held last Saturday, with the same time as Switzerland's Nicola Spirig -- 1 hour, 59 minutes and 48 seconds. In a photo finish, Spirig was awarded gold and Norden took silver.

Sweden's National Olympic Committee requested that the International Triathlon Union (ITU) rank Norden first along with Spirig.

But after the ITU rejected that appeal Wednesday, the Swedish NOC and triathlon federation took the issue up with CAS.

They believe the ITU did not follow procedures because it may not have taken into account the position of the athletes' torsos at the line. The two Swedish sports organizations also say that it's impossible to determine the position of Spirig's torso, as it is behind Norden in the photograph.

However, the court's ruling stated that no ITU rule was violated and that the point of contention was "a field-of-play decision." According to precedent set by CAS jurisprudence, such matters are not able to reviewed by the court unless it can be proven the decision was arrived upon in an arbitrary manner or that officials made the judgment with bad faith.