?That Was Painful to Watch?: Shocking Disqualification After NCAA Star?s Petty Mistake Leaves Track World Upset

A momentary lapse can sometimes be enough to derail an entire process in any athletics event. A similar case put the otherwise lightning-fast Texas women’s track and field team out of the 4×400 meters event yesterday. As the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships are on, the Texas women’s team has set the lanes on fire on almost every occasion. The only blemish for them was getting disqualified for the 4×400 meters event and the track and field fans reacts in surprise.

‘Flagrantly Impeding’ is a term that was approved by the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel to track and field events of any gender. It pertains to when a runner, knowingly or unknowingly, violates the rule by obstructing another runner’s progress. What went down in Austin yesterday was the same.

How one small mistake cost the entire track and field team in the event

The Texas women’s team looked in blazing form at the Myers Stadium, creating records in almost every track and field event. However, a small mistake by a runner cost them the 4×400-meter relay event, after they were disqualified. A tweet by Oluwadare went, “Texas women’s 4x400m was disqualified at the NCAAs after this, described as flagrantly impeding”.

The video he posted captured the exact moment the mistake was made. The race started and was moving along well, without any breach of conduct. It reached the point where the baton was supposed to be passed on to another runner, which is exactly where the ‘shift of lanes’ took place.

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Whether it was a loss of concentration, a fatigue-induced mistake, or simply a loss of balance on the runner’s part at the end, it was grounds enough for disqualification. The Texas women’s team was happy to excel marvelously at the 4×100 meters event, but it was a sour experience at the 4×400 meters event for them. The track and field fans have always voiced their opinion whenever they felt something is a bit off. Just like they erupted in anger over the decision to put the Indoor Championships once behind a paywall, and now this.

The fans were just in disbelief as the athletes themselves

The fans on Twitter were quite shocked and confused by the outcome, not unlike the viewers at the stadium in Austin. Here’s how some of them reacted:

https://twitter.com/Track_Gazette/status/1667091878049718274?s=20

A fan wrote this quite baffled by what happened down there.

Another fan was more understanding of the runner’s situation on the track.

A fan couldn’t believe all that effort of the entire team just went in vain for that one mistake.

Someone decided to have a little fun about their disqualification by cracking a joke.

A fan, seemingly surprised at the kind of mistake, wrote this.

The Texas women’s team had a great outing besides the 4×400 meters event and will take a lot of heart from the overall championships in Austin. However, they will definitely look into what exactly happened during the event and try and resolve it to avoid any further similar situations in the future.

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