LONDON, April 30: The chaotic scene at the end of the Cricket World Cup final in Bridgetown on Saturday when umpires mistakenly ordered Australia and Sri Lanka to restart the match in virtual darkness was not the first time when sports officials have made a bungle of things.

ATHLETICS — The 1908 London Olympics marathon finished in disarray when officials helped the exhausted leading runner Dorando Pietri over the finishing line after he had repeatedly collapsed on the final lap. Unfortunately, their well meant efforts only succeeded in disqualifying the Italian — runners were supposed to complete the race unaided. The gold medal was instead awarded to American John Hayes but the race was forever known as Dorando's Marathon.

TENNIS — Umpire Ted Watts got it hopelessly wrong at Wimbledon in 2004 when his extraordinary scoring error helped put paid to former champion Venus Williams's chances in the second round. At 2-1 down in the second set tie-break, Karolina Sprem faulted on her first serve. Instead of announcing a second serve, Watts mistakenly gave the Croatian a point and called the score at 2-2. Although both players looked perplexed, neither queried the decision and play continued. Williams moved to a 6-3 lead and had three set points to get back into the match, Sprem saved all three and converted her first match point to triumph 7-6, 7-6.

GOLF — Home hope Mark Roe, a British journeyman Tour pro, looked on the verge of a major breakthrough at the British Open in Sandwich, England, in 2003 when he fired a third-round 67 to lie fourth with a round to go. But Roe signed the wrong scorecard, belonging to his playing partner Jesper Parnevik, and was promptly disqualified after leaving the scoring booth. Roe later said the fault was all his but the scorers were widely blamed for not spotting such a basic error and the Royal and Ancient later changed its procedures.

SOCCER — No one envied British referee Graham Poll when he was given the combustible Australia versus Croatia 2006 World Cup first round group match to officiate. With the match heading for a 2-2 draw, things got out of hand towards the end when Croatian Josip Simunic committed a second bookable offence.

Instead of the automatic dismissal warranted, Simunic remained on the field and was only finally red-carded after the final whistle when he was found guilty of dissent, his ‘third yellow’.

Poll's World Cup duties ended there.

GYMNASTICS — American Paul Hamm became the first American to win an Olympic men's all-round gold medal at the 2004 Athens Games. However, shortly afterwards the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) admitted Hamm had been awarded the crown in error after South Korea's Yang Tae-young had been incorrectly docked a tenth of a point from his parallel bars routine. The missing mark made the difference between bronze and gold.

Despite acknowledging the mistake, the federation refused to redistribute the medals but hinted heavily that Hamm should give Yang his medal. Hamm refused and the matter was finally sent to sport's highest court of appeal, the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which ruled in the American's favour.—Reuters