BEIJING, China, Sporting Alert – Watch Jamaica’s Veronica Campbell-Brown drifted into the lane of her competitor and still qualified for the 200m semis at the World Championships.
The veteran sprinter started the race in lane five but crossed the line in lane six.
The 2004 and 2008 Olympic Games gold medal winner over the discipline, ran an impressive race from start to finish, but ended the contest in the wrong lane after losing her concentration and floated into the lane of Great Britain’s Margaret Adeoye.
Campbell-Brown clocked 22.79 seconds to win heat five and finished ahead of Semoy Hackett of Trinidad and Tobago, 22.89 and Adeoye, 23.10, and although she finished in the lane to her outside, the Jamaican still went through, as the 33-year-old did not impede the athlete of the lane in question.
Furthermore, Adeoye, who admitted to being shocked at seeing someone else in her lane, also progressed to the semi-finals.
The British sprinter also revealed that seeing Campbell-Brown in her lane helped to pull her into a qualifying place.
“I was like, ‘Was that me or was that her?’” said Adeoye sai. “It helped me get to the finish line, so it’s fine.
“I just wanted to get as close to her as possible, because I knew she’d probably get DQed.”
Notably, though, it was also good that the Jamaican didn’t try to ease up during the finish, as that might have caused an athlete to overtake Adeoye and knocked her out of the event.
According to the International Association of Athletics Federations’s (IAAF) rule 163 (4b): “An athlete shall not be disqualified if he steps or runs outside his or her lane in the straight with no material advantage thereby being gained, and no other athlete being jostled or obstructed to impede his or her progress.”
Silver medallist from the 100m, Dafne Schippers of the Netherlands, won heat six very comfortably and with the third fastest time of the heat, at 22.58.
However, Jamaican Elaine Thompson was also very comfortable when winning heat four in 22.79 and she too has a lot more left in the tank.
Other heat winners were Americans Jeneba Tarmoh (22.79), Candyce McGrone (22.45), Marie-Josee Ta Lou of the Ivory Coast (22.73) and Great Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith, the fastest qualifier, at 22.22 seconds.
The time was a personal best for Asher-Smith, who ran the heat from the inside lane and she believes she has a lot more to offer in the semi-finals.
