Beijing - The ad hoc division of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Beijing confirmed Thursday that both Spain and Italy have lodged protests over the decision to award the 49er category sailing gold medal to Jonas Warrer and Martin Ibsen. The Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) and the Spanish Olympic Committee (COE) took the move after having two protests against the decision to allow the Danish pair to keep their medals, despite borrowing a boat for their final race, turned down by the International Sailing Federation's (ISAF) international jury.
Warrer and Ibsen were sailing towards the start line when the mast of their boat broke and as a result decided to use the vessel of the Croatia team, which had not qualified for the gold medal race.
"The Spanish team, which obtained the silver medal and the Italian team, which was ranked fourth, as well as the Race Committee, filed various protests which were all rejected by the ISAF International Jury," said CAS in a statement.
"The two NOCs request the CAS to annul the ISAF International Jury decisions, to declare that the Danish team was not entitled to take part in the gold medal race, to disqualify the Danish team and to re- allocate the Olympic medals to the Spanish team (gold medal), to the German team (silver medal) and to the Italian team (bronze medal)."
Jesper Frigast, chef de mission for the Danish Olympic team, confirmed to Danish television Thursday that he had been contacted by CAS to inform him that they had received complaints.
"CAS has promised to send the documents to us today," Frigast added, saying that until the Danish team has seen the documents it was hard to know what the complaints centred on.
CAS will hear the case on Friday at 11 am (0300 GMT).
Ibsen said he felt "pretty sure that the gold was safe" and he would be "very surprised" if the jury's earlier decision was overturned.
Danish Culture Minister, Brian Mikkelsen, who also handles sports, said he felt the complaints "violated the Olympic spirit."
Mikkelsen said he had discussed the issue with his Spanish counterpart who said the complaint was none of his doing.
