EQUESTRIAN SPORT: In the space of four hours, Bettina Hoy went from golden girl who had put Germany on top of the world to the wicked witch of the west and finally to the fairy princess as she took double gold in the eventing at the Markopoulo venue yesterday. Grania Willis at the Markopoulo Centre reports

Gold for Germany, silver for France and bronze for the British was the original medal line-up announced after the afternoon's team final, but Bettina Hoy's gold medal-clinching clear for Germany became the subject of heated debate after the judges' attention was drawn to a timing problem that had occurred at the start of the round.

The French, relegated to second by the Germans, boycotted the winners' press conference and refused to accept the final standings. The controversy saw a total reshuffle in which the Germans were stripped of team gold, with the French promoted to fill the vacancy, but a subsequent objection from the Germans saw them reinstated to the top step of the podium last night.

The planned medal ceremony immediately after the team decider was put on hold while video footage was reviewed by a three-man appeal committee which determined Hoy, second last to jump, had gone through the start twice. Following speedy recalculations, Hoy's score was adjusted and the addition of 14 time faults meant the German team had crashed to fourth and out of the medals.

Official results were finally released, announcing the French as gold medallists, with the British in silver and the Americans - out of the medal zone in the initial line-up - promoted to the bronze. But a counter-objection by the Germans was still under investigation as the top 25 returned to fight it out for the individual medals last night.

Moments before Hoy was due to jump in her eighth-from-the-top start, the appeal committee announced "a clear injustice" had occurred and Hoy's time faults had been removed, putting the Germans back on top in the team standings and boosting Hoy back to second place in the reverse order of merit individual decider.

A clear from Britain's Leslie Law and the Irish export Shear l'Eau put the pressure on the four above him and compatriot Pippa Funnell was first to succumb, with Primmore's Pride collecting four faults. America's Kim Severson also picked up four and then it was Hoy's turn to celebrate the confirmed team result by putting in her bid for individual honours.

With her eyes still red-rimmed with emotion, Hoy focused only on the fences in front of her and, even though the Irish-bred Ringwood Cockatoo connected with the planks, everything else stayed put and, finally, Frenchman Nicolas Touzaint was the only one who could deny Hoy the double.

Crowned as European champion in Punchestown last September, Touzaint's slight frame has borne more pressure than most 24-year-old shoulders. But it all proved too much under the floodlights last night as Galan de Sauvagere ploughed through four fences and added three on the clock to plummet to ninth, leaving Bettina Hoy to claim both team and individual gold.

Law gave Irish breeding a boost by taking silver ahead of Kim Severson in bronze, but there was not much else on the good-news front for the Irish, who finished a dispiriting eighth, sliding a further place from their cross-country ranking when none of the quintet could produce a clear yesterday.

Mark Kyle came close, knocking just a single fence with Drunken Disorderly. Kyle and Niall Griffin (Lorgaine) qualified for the evening's top 25 individual decider, but two fences down apiece left them well off the pace in 21st and 23rd overall.

"Obviously we're very disappointed not to have gone clear,, chef d'equipe Helen Cantillon O'Keeffe said yesterday. "It just shows how important show jumping is in a competition like this because it's turned everything upside down."

A fifth-place finish for the team in Sydney four years ago prompted the Olympic Council of Ireland and the Sports Council to tip equestrian as one of the chief contenders for a medal, but the advance was halted yesterday. Ireland has yet to win a medal on the Olympic stage but, unless the show jumpers can come up with the goods next week, we will be returning empty-handed yet again.