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Australian track and field athlete Sally Pearson's Delhi Commonwealth Games' 100metre disqualification may be a payback for Australia's protest against England in the 2006 Games in Melbourne, an Australian official has said. In the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games, the Australian team was awarded the gold medal in the women's 4x400metre relay after the disqualification of the England team for a baton-change violation. Pearson was stripped of her gold medal after England protested that she had a false start in a controversial 100metre race at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on Thursday. Athletics Victoria Chief Executive Nick Honey said that the disqualification appeared legitimate, but he believed there was some spite involved in the English protest. "Look it goes back, I think, to the last Commonwealth Games with the 4x400m relay for the girls and the Australians, and we informed the officials and got the English girls disqualified, so it might be a bit of payback," The Courier Mail quoted Honey, as saying. "From the letter of the law I think it was probably fair. I think in her heart of hearts Sally realized she had broken and was pretty excited when she got to race again," he added. Pearson had crossed the line first ahead of Nigeria's Osayemi Oludamola (11.32) and Natasha Mayers of St. Vincent and the Grenadines (11.37), with England's Katherine Endacott fourth. The Australian team lodged a counter-appeal, but it was rejected after lengthy, four-hour deliberations. Due to Pearson's disqualification, the gold medal went to Oludamola, while Endacott moved up to the bronze medal.

England protest against Pearson's Delhi CWG win may be 'payback': Oz official