VIDEO: Bizarre Scenes at American Track Race as Gold Medal Opportunity Goes Begging Due To a ‘Wrong Turn’

The state of Atlanta, powered by the AJC, organizes the Peachtree Road Race every year, an American 10-kilometer track event. People venture out in huge numbers for the event every year and the previous year’s gold medalist, Senbere Teferi looked all set for consecutive golds. The entire race event is truly challenging, testing the ability, endurance, and mental strength of the runners. Senbere had an amazing race, holding onto the first position for most of the race, only to falter at the very end.

A policeman confuses Senbere Teferi in a track race

Teferi was confused when the police motorcycle in front of her abruptly turned right just before the finish line. In a moment of utter chaos and confusion, she runs toward the bike, derailing herself from the original track. By the time she realizes her mistake and makes her way, it was all but clear that her quest for two consecutive golds met a sad end. In the video shared by the Twitter page Barstool Sports, you can hear the collective gasp in the crowd when they witness the bizarre turn of events. The cheers on the sidelines quickly turn into concerned murmurs as Senbere made her way back on the track.

In their statement released after the race, the AJC Peachtree Road Race deeply regretted the disappointing series of events and admitted their shortcomings. “As our defending champion, Senbere Teferi, was approaching the finish line, it looks like she momentarily became confused and followed a police motorcycle when it turned off the course. She was within sight of the finish banner, but we understand that in the heat of competition, instructions can be misinterpreted. As an organization, we are disappointed whenever we fall short of perfection, and in this case, it appears we did.”

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Fans were unhappy with the way the organizers ran the event and felt it deprived Teferi of a chance to make history. The police bikes on the track are present in order to guide the runners along the track and ensure they do not go off limits, but unfortunately for Senbere, they failed to do so here.

The event is a festival and a matter of enormous pride for the residents of Atlanta and is celebrated throughout the community. They applauded the organizers for being able to pull the event off in such an unpredictable climate, but expressed staunch disappointment in them not being able to weather all the organizational storms that came their way.