Knight’s dreams of Commonwealth gold crushed by relay disqualification
WSEH’s Jessie Knight’s dreams of a gold medal at her first Commonwealth Games were crushed on Sunday evening, when Team England's 4x400m relay team were disqualified after winning the final following a lane infringement.
Knight (Marina Armstrong, WSEH) had appeared to deliver victory for her country as she lunged for the line to edge out Canada’s Kyra Constantine by a hundredth of a second.
But the host nation was denied a fairy tale end to the athletics programme at the Alexander Stadium when judges spotted that Jodie Williams’ foot had strayed out of her lane on the first changeover.
The decision felt harsh on the England team, as the infringement gave them no discernible advantage and no other teams were impeded, however, the decision was upheld after an unsuccessful appeal. Canada were pro moted into gold medal position, Jamaica into silver and Scotland were awarded the bronze.
The England team were led off by 400m individual silver medallist Victoria Ohuruogu (Christine Ohuruogu, Newham & Essex Beagles) and she passed the baton to Williams, who took bronze in the individual event. At this stage England appeared to be well in medal contention, as Williams tucked in behind Jamaica at the half-way stage.
Ama Pipi (Marco Airale, Enfield and Haringey) was metres off the lead when she was handed the baton, and she produced an impressive leg to give England a lead of around 10m before the final exchanges.
Knight, who’d finished fifth in the 400m hurdles final on Saturday, ran conservatively for the first 300m, but was forced to dig in and battle as Constantine charged for victory down the final straight. The pair crossed the line together, but Knight’s lunge for the line, holding the baton out in front of her, saw her claim victory in 3.25.84, with Canada clocking 3.25.84.
The England team celebrated and carried flags on a joyous lap of honour, however, the drama wasn't over with the quartet later disqualified for a blatant lane infringement.
Scotland were promoted onto the medal rostrum. Their team was led off by experienced multi-international medallist Zoey Clark (Ryan Oswald, Thames Valley) and featured 200m individual finalist Beth Dobbin, Jill Cherry (Allan Scott, Victoria Park of Glasgow) and Nicole Yeargin (Boogie Johnson, Pitreavie).
Knight finished just outside of the medals in her first Commonwealth Games final on Saturday, finishing fifth in the women’s 400m hurdles. Knight hadn’t managed to put the perfect race together in the heats and semi-final, but she was well positioned to compete at the halfway stage. Unfortunately, she couldn’t keep pace with Jamaican duo, Janieve Russell, who took gold in 54.14, and Shiann Salmon, 54.47, with South Africa’s Zeney van der Walt taking bronze in 54.47.
Knight finished in 55.11.