Race walking shoots itself in the foot! This athlete broke the rules of her event, and yet she is still awarded Gold!
This athlete broke the rules of her event, and yet she is still awarded Gold.
At 200m. from the finish Lashmanova broke into a trot for 20m. or so believing she had crossed the finish line - she was far enough ahead that her "cheating" wouldn't have affected the result, however the rules don't provide for that discretion. The athletes had to enter the stadium in the middle of the second turn (while a javelin event was going on!) complete the remainder of that lap, and then do one more lap to finish. Most of the spectators were following the leader's progress as she had already stopped at the finish line a lap early, and so most saw her running, but apparently the judges didn't, or they chose to ignore it! Prior to this incident, the second athlete had entered the stadium and came to a complete stop (possibly she had been disqualified) but was quickly waved on her way! As she is also Russian it is understandable a protest wasn't made, but what is baffling is the fact that the next 2 finishers are Chinese and they didn't file a protest.
Weird s--t man!
In order to curry favour for the next World Championships in Bejing, the GB&NI should have lent their services and experience in lodging protests to the Chinese team. Payback could have come in handy 2 years from now.
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