Commonwealth Games officials under fire after 200m controversy

COMMONWEALTH Games officials have come under fire for giving a sprint star an in-poor-taste “bullet” in the cruellest fashion.

Zharnel Hughes was thrilled before being brought back down to earth.

COMMONWEALTH Games officials have come under fire for the almighty blunder which saw England’s Zharnel Hughes complete a lap of honour before finally getting the heartbreaking news he’d been disqualified.

The 22-year-old was shocked the moment a Games official dropped the bomb on him near the Carrara Stadium tunnel that he had been stripped of the gold medal in the men’s 200m final on Thursday night.

Hughes crossed the line first in a dramatically close photo finish which saw him end up with the same time of 20.12 seconds as Trinidad and Tobago’s Jereem Richards.

However replays showed Hughes crossed into Richards’ lane in the final 30m, forcing his rival to change his line as he was on the verge of rushing past the fading Englishman just before the finish.

The Channel 7 footage also showed Hughes’ left arm making contact with Richards’ right arm and torso as they jostled for the lead.

The finish was as dramatic as they come.

English athletics legend Sebastian Coe said it was clear Hughes would be disqualified.

Race stewards eventually made the call to disqualify Hughes after a delay of several minutes.

By the time the disqualification was official, Hughes was walking around the final bend on his victory lap, nearing the home straight.

As he celebrated, draped in his country’s flag, a Games official eventually approached him to deliver the bad news.

Devastation. This is the moment 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Zharnel Hughes found out his 200m Gold medal was being taken off him. #GC2018 pic.twitter.com/fG1zmywy4D

— 7CommGames (@7CommGames) April 12, 2018

The blunder, which allowed Hughes to all-but complete his victory lap before being told of his DQ, has been slammed by commentators who labelled the handling of the situation “cruel”.

“This was sport at its cruellest,” BBC athletics commentator Alison Curbishley said.

“The officials will be mulling over that one and I’m sure they will admit that they were in the wrong because he should have been told a lot sooner.”

Daily Mail sports reporter Riath Al-Samarri wrote on Twitter: “Zharnel Hughes dodged a bullet from a thief but he couldn’t dodge one from the officials at the 200m final.”

On the men's 200m at the Commonwealth Games, rules that saw Zharnel Hughes go from 1st to DQ make no sense. Only impeded one runner, Jereem Richards, who rightly gets the gold because of that. But why wouldn't Hughes be relegated to the silver instead of being DQed? Overly harsh

— Nick Bowen (@Nick_Bowen) April 13, 2018

England did eventually appeal the disqualification, but it was officially rejected — more than an hour after the race finished at 10pm.

Hughes had been officially disqualified for obstruction under the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) rule 163.2.

A devastated Hughes left the Stadium after refusing all media interview requests.

His rival Richards, who was officially handed the gold medal, was happy to talk to everyone on the Gold Coast.

He said Hughes definitely made contact with him during the frantic finish.

“He was ahead, then when I started to catch him, I felt his hand come across and hit me,” Richards said.

“I was coming up on him strongly and the hit threw me off my rhythm. I had to slow down. You don’t expect to get hit in a race. It’s never happened to me before. I didn’t panic because finishing is my strongest part of the race.

“The race was definitely better than my (first round) heat. It wasn’t exactly how I wanted it to be, but I executed it the best I could. In the home straight I was fast enough, I was strong enough and then coming to the end of the race, that’s when I got hit across the chest.”

Ecstasy turned to agony for Hughes.