WATCH: Ivy League distance runner disqualified for guarding manoeuvre

Columbia University distance runner Talha Syed had the men’s 5,000m wrapped up on the final day of the NCAA Ivy League Indoor Heptagonal Championships on Feb. 25, but an obstructing manoeuvre at the finish line left him disqualified.

Syed (in blue) was in the lead with less than 100m to go, but a surging Nicholas Bendtsen from Princeton University (in white) put the Columbia runner in defense mode. Syed forced Bendtsen into the outside lane, essentially running him out of real estate. Syed was initially given the title in 14:01.63, but was later disqualified when officials ruled that he impeded the Princeton runner.

Although Syed did not make direct contact with Bendtsen, the manoeuvre is frowned upon, as it forces the runner trying to pass to the outside to run a longer distance, or they would have to adjust their direction.

At the 2021 U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials, distance runner Paul Chelimo pulled off a similar move, forcing Americans Grant Fisher and Woody Kincaid to the outside to book his ticket to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Chelimo was not disqualified, but according to USATF Rule 163.3, “each competitor shall run in a direct line after entering the final straightaway in all races of two or more turns unless there is another competitor in their path.” The difference between Chelimo’s and Syed’s move is that Chelimo’s was executed on an eight-lane outdoor track, and not a smaller five-lane indoor track, where Syed and Bendtsen ended up in lanes four and five.

Syed’s move had some narrative to it, as well. Bendsten beat Syed in the men’s 3,000m discipline on the Saturday of Ivy League Heps, so surely he did not want to finish as runner-up again.

Do you think the move should have warranted a disqualification? Or do you believe all is fair in love and war, and that it’s a similar move to overtaking someone on the inside lane?