Mod officials admit gaffe over results

Gaelic singer Lindsey Mitchell has been confirmed as the rightful winner of the Traditional Gold Medal at the Royal National Mod after a blunder over vital marks.

There was gasps of disbelief and unhappiness from the audience at the Corran Halls at Oban when she was awarded three extra points without explanation on Thursday.

Based on the announced individual marks awarded over the two days of the premier competition, rival Wilma Kennedy was in the lead.

However, Ms Mitchell, 25, of Breascleit, Lewis, was declared the eventual winner on aggregated scores.

The Mod announcer simply said that the queried marks were accurate but did not give any explanation of the discrepancy at the time. He was questioned twice by the audience, many of whom had added up the two days’ totals and come up with a different result. It is understood judges were also kept in the dark.

Mod organiser An Comunn Gaidhealach has now admitted that it made a double blunder but confirmed that Ms Mitchell was the correct titleholder.

An Comunn had incorrectly claimed she had failed to submit notice of her chosen song by the August deadline and wrongly penalised the singer by three points.

Ms Mitchell became aware of the mistake after her adjudication on Wednesday and complained. She proved her case and was entitled to get the points back but An Comunn compounded its gaffe by failing to tell the audience or the other competitors.

The crowd was led to believe that Ms Kennedy was the favourite by one point. She lost out by the same difference in the end.

An Comunn said it had declined to declare its blunder before the final competition to give the rest a fair opportunity, but said lessons would be learned. It did not upload the results to its internet site until about 24 hours after the event.