Netherlands Olympic runner Lieke Klaver has narrowly escaped disqualification after deliberately staying in the starting blocks when the gun went off.
Lining up for the women’s 400m semi-finals on Thursday morning (AEST), Klaver, despite appearing ready and on her marks, failed to take off when the starter pulled the trigger.
The other athletes in the race all burst out of their blocks but quickly slowed down when the gun went off again, signalling that something went wrong.
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“Oh dear, what’s happened in (lane) six? Klaver didn’t leave the blocks,” Gerard Whateley said on commentary for Nine.
“Does she have any right to do that?”
Tamyson Lewis-Manou added: “That was the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen.
“She went up into ‘set’, and then she went back down. That was very, very bizarre. She knows it’s wacky Wednesday.
“I’m very confused.”
A race official came straight for Klaver to ask for an explanation, and the pair stood speaking for an extended moment.
“That looks like her error. What right does she have to decide that we’re not going?” Whateley said.
“That’ll be the debate right now.”
Apparently satisfied with whatever reason the Dutch runner gave for the missed start, the race official left her back at the blocks before returning to the track seconds later with a yellow card.
Yellow cards are issued to athletes when they have caused the race to be aborted.
“Last night, you saw the athlete raise their hand and that caught the attention of officials. Klaver made no signal,” Whateley said.
“Huge risk. I’m not sure that’s fair to the rest of the field, really.
“She chose not to run and she’s gotten away with it.”
Lewis-Manou added: “I’ll be very interested to know why they blew the gun again — they’re feeling kind.
“I think her coach would be sitting there shaking his head, thinking, ‘Why did she not go when the gun went?’”
Rule 16.5.1 of the World Athletics official competition and technical rules book states: “Where an athlete in the judgement of the starter, after the command ‘on your marks’ or ‘set’, and before the report of the gun, causes the start to be aborted, for instance by raising a hand and/or standing or sitting up in the case of a crouch start, without a valid reason, (such reason to be evaluated by the relevant referee), the starter shall abort the start.
“The referee may warn the athlete for improper conduct (disqualify in case of a second infringement of the rule during the same competition), according to Rules 7.1 and 7.3 of the technical rules. A green card shall not be shown.
“However, when an extraneous reason was considered to be the cause for aborting the start, or the referee does not agree with the starter’s decision, a green card shall be shown to all the athletes to indicate that a false start was not committed by any athlete.”
In this case, Klaver caused the start to be aborted after the gun went off.
Rule 16.5 says nothing about an athlete who hears the gun go off, but then doesn’t take off out of the blocks.
Officially, the yellow card was issued for “improper conduct, failing to comply with the starter’s commands”.
The race eventually did get underway with a clean start, and Klaver finished fourth, just narrowly missing qualification for the final.
She needed to be in the top three to make the final, but missed by just 0.23 seconds, behind Norway’s Henriette Jaeger.
Bahrain’s Salwa Eid Naser finished first in 49.08, well clear of Ireland’s Rhasidat Adeleke in second.
“Klaver’s had a shocker after that stressful start that we saw,” Lewis-Manou said after the race.
Interestingly, there was another yellow card issued to a late starter in the second semi, after what appeared to be an extended pause before the gun went off.
Laviai Nielsen’s reaction time of 0.4 seconds — almost four times the average — was so slow that it prompted a European commentator to question whether there was an issue with the gun.
“Lanes eight and nine moved at the same time, (lane seven) didn’t go at all,” Rob Walker said.
“You know my view, I’m very, very much hoping this is faulty (equipment). It’s awful to see disqualifications and nothing stood out to the naked eye. It is hard enough for these women to get themselves composed, and it was a late recall as well.”
“I wonder if they’re having a little bit of a problem with the equipment,” John Anderson added.