Gardener cleared of false start

Gardener (right) lost out to Lewis-Francis (left)

Jason Gardener has been officially cleared of making a false start during the 60m at the Norwich Union Indoor Grand Prix in Birmingham last Sunday.

The European indoor record holder protested his innocence at the time after being penalised for allegedly jumping the gun on the first start.

He trailed in third on the restart behind South African Morne Nagel and fellow Briton Mark Lewis-Francis.

I knew all along that it was not down to me

Jason Gardener

But an investigation by UK Athletics discovered a delay in activating the mechanism which detects false starts.

The inquiry revealed that the initial race should have been a 'faulty start' because three athletes beat the bleep and did not record reaction times.

Gardener was actually the fourth sprinter to rise from the blocks, but was given the false start because his time was the first to show on the computer.

"The false start shouldn't have been attributed to Jason Gardener," confirmed Emily Lewis, a spokeswoman for UK Athletics.

First indoor defeat

The Bath athlete has now been told by meeting organisers Fast Track that he was not to blame.

"I knew all along that it was not down to me," Gardener said.

His first indoor defeat to a fellow European in three years cost Gardener £910 in prize money, but he is unlikely to receive any compensation.

He will face Lewis-Francis again when he defends his European Indoor Championship 60m title in Vienna early next month.

The winner will claim a place in the Great Britain team for the Norwich Union International against Russia, Germany and Sweden at Glasgow's Kelvin Hall on 9 March.