Track Officials’ Counting Error Leaves British Olympian Jessica Ennis Fuming

Track Officials’ Counting Error Leaves British Olympian Jessica Ennis Fuming

British Olympian Jessica Ennis thought she had broken her personal record on the 100m hurdles. Embarrassingly, a mistake committed by race organizers kept her from achieving her personal best.

Instead of ten, nine hurdles were placed on the track!  After the track athlete won with a time of 12.75 to beat Americans Danielle Carruthers  and Dawn Harper, retired British heptathlete Kelly Sotherton tweeted "That 100mh was great but I'm sure that there was only 9 hurdles not 10. Please someone verify!"

Sotherton was right. The race was set up incorrectly and Ennis' personal best is not counted.  Event organizers apologized for the stupid mistake and blamed it on UK Athletics, which is the governing body administering the race. The apology didn't stop Ennis from feeling frustrated.

"I feel let down," said Ennis, showing her frustration. "I felt like it was a good race, I was running well, I was obviously coming through at the end, stick another hurdle on there it would have been the same outcome but, argh, I'm so annoyed. What can I say? I've still had a good competitive race but I've just not got the result that I wanted."

This is really an embarrassing mistake for organizers considering the London Olympics is near.  Word is that they hired this guy as a special consultant.  Ennis said she's never experienced such a stupid mistake, even when running in school competitions.

Ironically, International athletes know that the Olympic track and field events are run by the IAAF with officials who are expected to be able to know to count to 10.

Posted by Andre Monohan on Monday May 28 2012, 2:18 AM EST. Ref: Google. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0