India loses appeal and first gold

The Court of Arbitration for Sport on Saturday rejected an appeal by Indian shot putter Yadvendra Vashishta who was stripped of his Paralympic gold after a classification dispute.

Vashishta, who has polio, won in the F42 category, equivalent to an above knee amputee, after setting a new world record of 14.17m.

But nine days later authorities told him he should have been in the F44 classification and took his medal away.

The decision provoked anger in India, reaching the office of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee who backed the appeal -- to no avail.

"The decision was in favour of the International Paralympic Committee and that the Indian as a result of that has been stripped of his medal," an IPC spokesman said.

Indian Paralympic team chief Shanker Iyer said the matter had sparked a storm of protest in India.

"It is the first gold medal in the history of India in the Paralympics," he said. "The first gold and it was snatched. There're a lot of angry people in India, we're getting phone calls from all over."

He said the matter had gone to the prime minister and minister for sport.

The hearing came as IPC president Robert Steadward criticised member nations for taking appeals to the courts and not allowing them to be resolved within the sport.