Susanna Sullivan finished fourth in the marathon at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo. However, the American distance runner was robbed of a podium finish amid a serious controversy that for some reason did not disqualify Kenya from the track and field competition.
The eventual world champion received illegal fluids during this latest #bottlegate!
Multiple different countries filed a protest to invalidate the track and field results, including the United States. It resulted only in a warning.
Susanna Sullivan finished fourth in the marathon.
The United States women had a strong day at the World Athletics Championship marathon despite swampy conditions in Tokyo. Jess McClain ran 2:29:20 for eighth place. Sullivan finished fourth.
The latter, who is a sixth-grade math teacher by day, led the race by herself for over an hour. She ran a gutsy second half to close out in 2:28:17 behind Julia Paternain of Argentina.
First place came down to a sprint finish between Peres Jepchirchir of Kenya and Tigst Assefa of Ethiopia.
Jepchirchir ultimately out-kicked Assefa down the final 100 meters. She won by two seconds.
Kenya cheated!
Credit where credit is due. Peres Jepchirchir ran a season’s best to be crowned as the marathon world champion. It was a great run. Susanna Sullivan was four minutes back.
Here’s the thing…
Jepchirchir had just a little bit more left in the tank at the finish line and that was not a coincidence. Kenya cheated!
There are strict rules in marathon about support. Teams are only allowed to provide their runners with fluids and/or aid at specific predetermined zones.
They are not allowed to pass any kind of water, ice, electrolytes, fuel (gels, gummies, etc.) or clothing anywhere else on the course.
Well, members of the Kenyan support team did exactly that! Kenya provided fluids to the eventual world champion outside of the official zones— over the barriers at unassigned locations.
Considering the brutal conditions for marathoning, that was likely a big help. Temperatures hovered in the low-to-mid 80s for the majority of the race with high humidity. Gross.
Sullivan and McClain both picked up white hats with a flap on the back to combat the heat and the hats were cooled with water. Sullivan also stuffed ice in the front of her jersey and wrung out ice water sponges over her head.
Both American athletes only received aid at the assigned locations. Jepchirchir got extra help along the way.
Peres Jepchirchir was not punished for receiving illegal bottles.
Several different countries filed a protest against Peres Jepchirchir’s result. The United States was not the first to do so but it followed the lead of others.
All of the protests were denied by World Athletics.
According to David Monti, Kenya only received a yellow card. A yellow card implies guilt but effectively serves as a slap on the wrist. A second violation will trigger a disqualification. Not the first.
Jepchirchir’s first-place finish will stand even though Kenya passed illegal bottles.
That’s bogus. Cheaters should be punished!
American Susanna Sullivan ran a clean race to finish fourth. She would get bumped to the podium if the world champion was disqualified but World Athletics chose not to do the right thing.