Brown disqualified for lane violation
Canadian athlete overcame stomach virus ravaging team to compete in 200m race
LONDON — For a couple of minutes Monday night, Aaron Brown believed perhaps Canada’s luck at the world track and field championships was turning.
He’d raced to a victory in his 200-metre heat in a season’s best time, three days after he’d been quarantined for the stomach virus that has slashed through the team.
Then the results flashed up on the scoreboard. Beside his name was the dreaded “DQ.” Brown was disqualified for a lane violation.
Athletics Canada immediately appealed the disqualification, but after video review, the appeal was rejected. Runners are disqualified for stepping on the line.
Four days into the world championships, the Canadian team has lost stars Andre De Grasse and Derek Drouin to injury, and Eric Gillis dropped out 30 kilometres into the marathon, three days after he’d been ill with what is believed to be the Norwalk virus.
Brown, who’d been disqualified for a false start in the 100 at last month’s Canadian championships, was happy he’d recovered from the bug that has flattened athletes from several teams staying at the same central London hotel.
Canadian team doctor Paddy McCluskey had said Sunday that seven Canadian team athletes and team members had been ill.
Sage Watson, from Medicine Hat, Alta., fared better than Brown, advancing to the semifinals in the women’s 400-metre hurdles. Watson was second in her heat in 55.06, the fifth fastest time of the night.
Canada has four athletes the in finals on Tuesday night, including Shawn Barber, the defending champion in pole vault. McBride races the 800, Matt Hughes races the 3,000-metre steeplechase, and Liz Gleadle throws the javelin.
Meanwhile, 110-metre hurdler Omar McLeod, from Kingston, Jamaica, did what Usain Bolt and Elaine Thompson could not the previous nights in the 100 metres — bring a gold medal home to a country that has come to expect nothing less. McLeod won in 13.04 seconds, while the world-record holder, American Aries Merritt, finished fifth. The U.S. got shut out of the medals in the 110 hurdles.
Other gold medallists Monday were Venezuela’s Yulimar Rojas in the triple jump and Poland’s Anita Wlodarczyk in the hammer throw.
Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon won the 1,500 metres, while Caster Semenya moved from fifth to third over the last 50 metres to capture the bronze. The IAAF is looking to reinstate an overturned ban on Semenya, claiming her higher-than-normal testosterone levels give her an unfair advantage over the other women.