The gold medal in the 10,000 meters has been returned to Morocco's Khalid Skah, who had been disqualified after a teammate was accused of interfering with a runner.
Today's decision by the International Amateur Athletic Federation means Kenyan Richard Chelimo was dropped to the silver medal and Addis Abebe of Ethiopia to the bronze. Salvatore Antibo of Italy lost his bronze medal.Skah was stripped of the medal Monday night, when officials ruled that Moroccan teammate Hammou Boutayeb had blocked Chelimo with three laps to go in the 6.2-mile race.
An IAAF jury met privately for 30 minutes today, hearing from the head referee and reviewing a tape of the encounter numerous times before deciding there was no intereference.
"The rule they protested was the lapping rule and they decided he didn't do it," said IAAF spokeswoman Jayne Pearce.
The rule requires athletes being lapped to move out of the way of leading runners and not aid teammates in any way.
"The panel's decision is final," Pearce said.
Kenyan team officials had no immediate comment.
Moroccan coach Lahsen Samesame said Boutayeb simply did not want to be lapped and was trying to stay ahead of the leading pair.
"The thing about track is very simple - the best wins," Samesame said. "Kenyans are great runners . . . and so are Moroccans. At that moment, Skah was the best - he destroyed that field."
Asked why Boutayeb didn't move to the outside and run on the shoulders of the leaders - as is common in such situations - the coach simply shrugged.
"He was running his race," Samesame said.
During the encounter, the crowd whistled in derision and an official tried unsuccessfully to push Boutayeb off the track. After Skah outdueled Chelimo in the dramatic final 100-meter sprint, spectators booed and hurled debris as Skah crossed the finish line.
Unfazed, Skah grabbed a Moroccan flag and began a victory lap to more derision. Chelimo was handed a Kenyan flag and paraded behind, to applause.
"Skah may have won anyway, but what happened, everybody saw," Chelimo said Monday night. "It was unfair, so I am happy now."
On that point, anyway, he and the Moroccan coach were in complete agreement.
It wasn't the only dispute at the track Monday. Alina Ivanova of the Unified Team was disqualified for walking violations while winning the inaugural women's 10-kilometer walk. Runner-up Chen Yueling became China's first Olympic gold medalist in track and field.
The glory belonged to Americans Mike Conley and Quincy Watts as they set Olympic records.
Watts, the NCAA champion from Southern Cal, eased up at the end of a 43.71-second semifinal heat - the second-fastest 400 in history. Only the 43.29 by American Butch Reynolds is faster.
Conley of Fayetteville, Ark., set an Olympic record of 57 feet, 101/4 inches and then soared to 59-71/2 to win the triple jump. The longer jump, second best of all time, would have been a world record had the wind not been blowing at 2.1 meters per second, just above the 2.0 limit.
Though it was his shortest jump of the evening, Conley leaped up 2 feet onto the winner's podium and pumped his fists repeatedly in the air. His effervescent smile captivated the crowd watching on a big screen TV.
He was joined on the podium by silver medalist Charlie Simpkins of Murfreesboro, Tenn.
"I've been second and third place, fourth place, all my life," said Conley, silver medalist at the 1984 Los Angeles Games. "Everybody always says Mike Conley can't win the big one. Today, I'm the best jumper in the world."
Redemption went to Mark McKoy, a Canadian hurdler who was suspended for leaving the Seoul Olympics in support of his friend, Ben Johnson. McKoy later admitted that he, too, had taken steroids.
On Monday he took gold. He glided over the 110-meter hurdles in 13.12 seconds to give Canada its first Olympic men's track title since 1932.
"I'm not sure you could say this makes up for 1988," he said. "It's history. I think all of track and field wants it put behind. It was a bad time for track and field."
Tony Dees of Tampa, Fla., won silver and Jack Pierce of Marlton, N.J., captured bronze in a photo finish for third place that took 6 minutes to decipher.
The most poignant moment of the bizarre evening came when Briton Derek Redmond tried to finish the 400 meters despite having pulled his hamstring halfway through the race.
Redmond clutched his leg in pain and knelt on the track, then began trying to hobble around the final 200 meters. Screaming in agony, Redmond would need almost five minutes to cover a distance he usually completes in 45 seconds.
With 100 meters to go, Redmond's father, Jim, jumped from the stands and pushed past a security guard to hug his struggling son and help him toward the finish. The two walked together, arm in arm, and then the sobbing sprinter buried his face in his father's shoulder before staggering across the line.
"I wasn't going to let the injury keep me from finishing this race," said Redmond, who missed the 1988 Olympics because of injuries and has endured five ankle operations. "There was no way I was going out on a stretcher, and there was no way I was going to let all those official people keep me from finishing."