Russia slams gymnastics judging errors

Russia lodged a protest with IOC chief Jacques Rogge over what they called biased judging throughout the Athens gymnastics competition.

Russia lodged a forceful protest with International Olympic Committee (IOC) chief Jacques Rogge on Tuesday over what they called biased judging throughout the Athens gymnastics competition.

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After a "people power" display where spectators held up on Monday's final horizontal bars event in protest at low marks for Russia's Alexei Nemov, Russian Olympic Committee President Leonid Tyagachev wrote to Rogge urging him to raise the issue of "subjective judging" with the IOC executive committee.

"The example of subjective judging of our gymnasts is so obvious that we no longer have the right to silence," ROC legal chief Tatyana Brilliantova said in a statement.

Having looked at the possibility of an appeal against the results, however, she said the ROC had concluded that there was no legal avenue open to them other than to write in complaint.

Saying the gymnastics judges "understood that they had gone too far in their own subjectivity" when they amended Nemov's marks in response to the crowd, Tyagachev wrote to Rogge:

"We are acting in defence of the interests not only of and indeed not so much of Russian athletes, as much as in the interests of all members of the international Olympic movement."

Complaints about judging in gymnastics, where "Sexy Alexei" Nemov failed to add a 13th Olympic medal to his tally and Svetlana Khorkina was pipped to the all-round gold by American Carly Patterson, come on top of a poor medal showing for Russia.