English runner loses gold for hitting rival mid-race
England has been denied a Commonwealth Games gold medal in the men's 200 metres after Zharnel Hughes was disqualified for making contact with his rival Jereem Richards before he crossed the finish line in first place.
Hughes was disqualified on the grounds he impeded Trinidad and Tobago's Richards in Thursday night's final at Carrara Stadium.
England lodged an appeal in the aftermath but it was unsuccessful and Hughes' disqualification stood.
Hughes had been leading Richards, who was in the lane to his left, by about a metre halfway down the home straight.
Richards was drawing level with Hughes less than 20 metres from the finish line when he was struck by the Englishman's straying left arm.
"He was ahead, then when I started to catch him, I felt his hand come across and hit me," Richards said after the race.
Hughes's contact was made while he was running on the inside of his lane, which meant he was closer to Richards.
Richards was impeded and he appeared to stumble as they hit the finish line together, with Hughes given the victory via a photo finish despite both clocking 20.12 seconds.
"I was coming up on him strongly and the hit threw me off my rhythm," Richards said.
"I had to slow down."
The pair stared at each other briefly as they began to slow down beyond the finish line.
Hughes even celebrated what he thought was a gold medal with a victory lap alongside Richards and Canada's Aaron Brown, who was third across the line, before he was informed of his disqualification.
Richards, a world championships bronze medallist last year, was shocked by the incident but gave himself credit for remaining calm.
"You don't expect to get hit in a race," he said.
"It's never happened to me before. I didn't panic because finishing is my strongest part of the race."
Brown was elevated to the silver medal position and Northern Ireland's Leon Reid was awarded the bronze.
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ABC .net
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