Pushing and shoving in one race on the track. In another, a cameraman intrudes upon the proceedings.
Leg cramps and field goal misses that come too soon. The usually uneventful Olympic track and field qualifying rounds took an unexpected turn overnight when a cameraman bumped into another competitor, a four-person pileup occurred in one men’s 5000m heat, and drama in the high jump left the reigning co-champions in serious trouble.
The worst collapse occurred during the opening heat of the men’s 5000 competition. George Mills of Britain and Hugo Hay of France exchanged elbows, resulting in a pileup that included Mills and three other competitors who fell like dominoes.
Following the race, Hay pushed Mills when the latter thrust his finger in his face. Hay, however, remained standing. “He eliminated me,” remarked Mills, the June European Championship silver medallist for Great Britain. “He could have stepped out.”
Due to the incident, Mills ended the race in 18th place, and he stated that he believed he had little chance of making it to the final because “Hay is French and we’re in France”. However, the referee decided that the contact had disadvantaged Mills and the other three, so they were all advanced to the final.
In the second heat, a cameraman walked onto the track
Midway through the race, a cameraman who was scuttling across the racing surface blocked the runners’ route, adding even more drama to the second heat.
Everyone changed directions without any problems, but American medal-hopeful runner Abdihamid Nur stumbled and finished last in the penultimate stretch.
The two-time world champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway qualified first in 13 minutes, 51.59 seconds, which was about the only thing that went as planned. Less than fifteen hours had passed since Ingebrigtsen startled everyone by not placing in the 1500.
