She was expected to win the US Women’s Half Marathon. Then the car in the direction took a wrong turn
Imagine, if you will, that you are in the final stages of a grueling 21.1-kilometer half marathon – and you are winning.
You follow the official pace car in front of you, knowing that the championship title is within reach. But then you realize that the car has made a mistake. You did too. By the time you circle back to the racetrack, you’re lost.
No, we don’t remember a luridly detailed anxiety dream (unless a wrong turn leads you to your previous high school, when you realize you failed and are naked).
We’re detailing what happened Sunday at the USA Track and Field (USATF) Half Marathon Championships to Phoenix runner Jessica McClain, sparking controversy and anger in the running world.
McClain he was in the lead by a wide margin with about 2.4 kilometers to go when he and the other front runners followed the wagon into a wrong turn, leading them out of the field by about a kilometer.
By the time he caught up, he had lost almost two minutes and was in ninth place, it cost him a spot at the World Athletics Road Running Championships this fall and $20,000 US in prize money. Runners who have been following him placed 12th and 13th.
“I had to stop, make a tight U-turn and finish running back to the center like a national title and a world team spot,” McClain wrote in an Instagram post.
“Something needs to change and there needs to be security for the athletes who are there and doing their best on the day of the race.”
‘Every race director’s worst nightmare’
The Atlanta Track Club, which was the local organizing committee for the race, issued a statement Tuesday explaining that a series of unfortunate events led to the intersection being empty at the wrong time.
A police officer who was working on the race was hit by a car about 90 meters from the intersection, said the track club. The police who were patrolling the intersection were called to assist, and they immediately left this position, without repositioning the traffic cones.
The motorcycle, speeder and four racers “improperly” turned left at the intersection while “the race-related officer assigned to direct them to the footbridge was away from the injured officer,” the statement added.
The policeman arrived at the intersection on a motorcycle and found the runners who were going the wrong way. They turned and joined the race at the same time they left the lesson.
The injured officer was taken to a hospital and released the same day, the Atlanta Track Club said.
“It’s sad and every race director’s worst nightmare,” Susan Ibach, runner in rural Manotick in Ottawa, told CBC News.
Ibach, 56, helps with the Ottawa Race Weekend and is involved in road closures and marking bumps so runners know which way to go. He said that the police work in the corners of the race, and there is a clause in the law that says that if a policeman is called, he must leave his station.
That has never happened in any of the races Ibach has worked in, and he describes what happened Sunday in Atlanta as a “very bad situation” and “bad luck.”
“A mistake was made, and these runners were affected by the mistake in a very bad way,” said Ibach, adding, “I think that as frustrating as it is, the standings of the race should stand as they are. The truth is that people who follow the course get first, second and third.”
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Molly Born of Chapel Hill, NC, crossed the starting line in one hour, nine minutes, 43 seconds. As track and field news website Citius Mag points out, he was running in fifth place when he took a bad turn but stayed on the track.
He told RunnerSpace.com that he was shocked and confused when he punched the tape at the finish line thinking he was behind the leaders.
“I went back so far that I didn’t see them make a mistake,” Zalwe said.
He also wrote on Instagram that if a he is offered a place in the world team, he does not plan to take it. “I didn’t get it right,” he wrote.
McClain and the three other runners behind the lead car filed an appeal after they were denied an appeal against the finish order. USATF said in a statement The appeals panel found that what happened was disproportionate to the value of the poorly marked course and that although the car led the runners on course, no action was taken to change the final position.
The organization noted that the American team for 2026 World Athletics Road Running Championships will not be officially selected until May and that the governing body will continue to review what happened in Atlanta.
“We have spoken directly with all affected athletes and appreciate their patience and good work despite the understandable anger and disappointment,” USATF said in an Instagram story.
The Atlanta Track Club announced in a statement Tuesday that it will match the prize money to McClain receives the equivalent of the first-place prize money, and the two runners who left the course behind him will split the combined second- and third-place prize money “because they were shoulder-to-shoulder when they left the race.”
While what happened may be a runner’s and race director’s worst nightmare, it is not the first or worst of marathon accidents.
That honor may go to the 1904 Olympics in St.
