EQUESTRIAN: Lawyers working on behalf of the French and American equestrian federations, along with the British Olympic Association, are putting together an appeal against Wednesday night's decision to reinstate Germany to the eventing team gold medal at the Markopoulo equestrian venue.

The appeal will be heard by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

Under International Equestrian Federation (FEI) regulations there is no appeal against a decision made by an appeal committee. But FEI secretary general Bo Helander said on Wednesday night "there is no appeal on the facts, but there is an appeal on the interpretation".

Worst affected by the decision to reinstate the Germans was the French team, which had been promoted to gold when it was ruled the last of the German riders, Bettina Hoy, had crossed the start line twice and was retrospectively awarded 14 time penalties.

The judges themselves had realised there had been an error as the clock was reset to countdown mode instead of timing the round when Hoy first went through the start.

Looking up at the clock, Hoy assumed her round was not being timed and circled her horse before approaching the start for a second time and embarking on the course.

After Hoy had cleared all the fences, both the scoreboard and the announcer declared a clear round inside the time to clinch team gold for Germany, but - while overnight leader Nicolas Touzaint was jumping - the judges realised a mistake had been made with Hoy's score.

It was announced over the public address the timing for one of the riders was being queried and - although the medal standings had been declared - releasing of the official results was put on hold while the judges held an inquiry into the incident.

Over 90 minutes later the placings were reversed, with Germany demoted to fourth place after the addition of 14 time faults to Hoy's score.

The reshuffle promoted the French to gold ahead of Britain and America. But an appeal by the German Federation saw the Germans reinstated to the gold after the three-man appeals committee ruled in favour of Hoy being given a clear round.

"She (Hoy) had every reason to believe her round had not started and that is why she should not be put at a disadvantage", appeals committee member Hugh Thomas said at a press conference that went on into the small hours of Thursday morning.

However, the French, British and Americans all feel there is room for a further appeal and are taking their case to CAS. If successful, the appeal would promote France to team gold, Britain to the silver and the Americans, currently fourth and out of the medals, to the bronze. The reshuffle would also affect the individual standings, with the British benefiting most as Leslie Law would take gold and team-mate Pippa Funnell would get the bronze behind Kim Severson of the USA.

"This doesn't spoil the result for us", British team manager Yogi Breisner said yesterday, "but it would be a big haul of medals if the appeal is successful. I would feel very sorry for Bettina, but you also have to feel sorry for the British who earned the medals."