{"id":231010,"date":"2026-03-01T18:08:38","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T18:08:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/01\/us-half-marathon-championship-ends-in-chaos-as-lead-runners-guided-in-wrong-direction\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T18:08:38","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T18:08:38","slug":"us-half-marathon-championship-ends-in-chaos-as-lead-runners-guided-in-wrong-direction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/01\/us-half-marathon-championship-ends-in-chaos-as-lead-runners-guided-in-wrong-direction\/","title":{"rendered":"US Half Marathon Championship ends in chaos as lead runners guided in wrong direction"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">USA Track &amp; Field has denied an appeal after its Half Marathon Championship in Atlanta ended in chaos.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">With less than two miles to go in the women\u2019s race, Jess McClain had a significant lead over Ednah Kurgat and Emma Hurley when the guide vehicle took the trio off course. Molly Born, who had been more than a minute behind the leaders, <a href=\"https:\/\/track.rtrt.me\/e\/ATC-PUBLIX-ATL-MARATHON-2026?fbclid=IwY2xjawIv1YBleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHYIDZm6zL1QyrCVI9j1raQ513xxo7-oPvc-7PZmWkIIEhxZskuoGCg6wLg_aem_ZGpgbyTitG6F9Pp1_g9MVw#\/leaderboard\/usatf-half-marathon-overall-women-gun-time-halfmarathon\/HALF-FINISH\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">came through to win the race,<\/a> with Carrie Ellwood and and Annie Rodenfels in second and third. McClain, Hurley and Kurgat finished in ninth, 12th and 13th respectively around two minutes behind Born. Wesley Kiptoo won the men\u2019s race.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">McClain also missed out on the $20,000 prize awarded to the winners of the men\u2019s and women\u2019s races.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"a418ed19-1568-4a70-a57f-61f4141c0003\" data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\" data-spacefinder-type=\"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.VideoYoutubeBlockElement\" class=\"dcr-173mewl\">\n<div data-component=\"youtube-embed\" class=\"dcr-13aa88h\">\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/uw_e1-bpPn0?wmode=opaque&amp;feature=oembed\" title=\"2026 USATF Half Marathon Championships at Publix Atlanta Half Marathon\" height=\"480\" width=\"854\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DVWYMONkVBS\/\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">In a statement, USATF said<\/a>: \u201cThe jury of appeals found that the event did not meet USATF Rule 243 and that the course was not adequately marked at the point of misdirection. This violation contributed to the misdirection taken by the athletes within the top four at the time of misdirection. However, the jury of appeals finds no recourse within the USATF rulebook to alter the results order of finish. The results order of finish as posted is considered final.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Under race rules, athletes are responsible for knowing the route of course.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The race served as a qualifier for the 2026 World Road Running Championships. However, USATF said the door was not closed on qualification.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cThis race was a selection event for the 2026 World Road Running Championships. That team is not officially selected until May,\u201d it said in its statement. \u201cUSATF will review the events from Atlanta carefully. While we understand athletes are eager to resolve this issue expeditiously, our process will ensure an ultimate decision is in the best interest of all the athletes involved.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">USATF added that: \u201cLead vehicles are provided and managed by the local organizing committee as per Rule 243.2.c of the 2026 USATF Competition Rules. Any questions pertaining to the course and the vehicle should be directed to the local organizing committee, Atlanta Track Club.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Tim Hutchings, who was providing broadcast commentary on the race, said he understood how the confusion came about.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cWhen you\u2019re in the heat of battle, you\u2019re seeing red, you\u2019ve got your head down, you\u2019re laser-focused on the task at hand,\u201d said Hutchings, who is a former long-distance runner. \u201cYou don\u2019t necessarily listen to people yelling at you from behind. You don\u2019t check if you\u2019re still on course. You\u2019re following a lead vehicle, and it looks like you\u2019re on a good course. But that was not the case today for Jess McClain.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">McClain is a veteran of US distance running \u2013 the 34-year-old finished eighth in the marathon at the 2025 World <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/sport\/athletics\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Athletics<\/a> Championships.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script async defer src=\"https:\/\/platform.instagram.com\/en_US\/embeds.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/sport\/2026\/mar\/01\/us-half-marathon-championship-ends-in-chaos-as-lead-runners-guided-in-wrong-direction\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>USA Track &amp; Field has denied an appeal after its Half Marathon Championship in Atlanta ended in chaos. With less than two miles to go in the women\u2019s race, Jess McClain had a significant lead over Ednah Kurgat and Emma Hurley when the guide vehicle took the trio off course. Molly Born, who had been [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":231011,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6802],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-231010","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-athetics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231010\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}