DORSET'S Olympic swimmer Karen Legg says she is "not bothered" after learning that she will have to share her World Championship gold medal with an American team, writes Roger Guttridge.

But she also described as "a little strange" the decision by swimming's world governing body, FINA, to award a duplicate set of medals to the US 4x200m freestyle team.

The decision is the latest and hopefully final twist in a saga which led to protracted protests and counter-protests after the final of the event in Fukuoka in July.

Ferndown Otter Karen and British team mates Nicola Jackson, Janine Belton and Karen Pickering touched home third in the event but were later promoted to gold medallists after both Australia and the US were disqualified.

The Australian disqualification for jumping into the pool while another team was still swimming was later upheld but FINA have clearly had second thoughts about the Americans disqualification for a faulty takeover by 0.06sec.

It was one of a string of incidents involving the electronic timing at the championships and the Americans claimed the equipment was unreliable.

In a new statement yesterday, FINA announced: "To avoid any reasonable doubt regarding the result but without unfairly changing the official results of the race, the bureau decided to grant a second set of gold medals to the USA team."

Karen, 23, said last night (Wednesday): "It doesn't make me feel any different about it because we were declared the winners at the time, we were the ones on the podium and I still have my medal."

But she added: "It is a slightly odd decision because the result of the race was investigated for many hours at the time and then the Americans were disqualified.

"Presumably they have looked at videos and decided there is an element of doubt but I can't see what issuing a duplicate set of medals really achieves."

* Karen has been out of training for the last three weeks following a minor operation and may be forced to pull out of next month's European short course championships in Antwerp.

"I should be fully recovered by then but I'm not sure how fit I will be after missing so much training," she said.

"I will probably make a decision at the beginning of December."