Olympics: Spearmon disqualified after bronze finish

Talk about shocking. Former Razorback and Fayetteville High grad Wallace Spearmon finished third in the 200 meter finals today in Beijing, China but was disqualified after the race for “running out of his lane,” according to a report.

No medal, at least for now, for Spearmon.

Here’s more:

American Wallace Spearmon crossed the line in third place in 19.95 but was disqualified for running out of his lane and team-mate Shawn Crawford, who ran 19.96 was promoted to the bronze medal.

Jamaica’s Usain Bolt grabbed first and a gold medal in the event, finishing in 19.90 seconds, a world record. Bolt broke Michael Johnson’s record in 1996 when he ran a 19.92.

Here’s more on Spearmon’s shocking disqualification, courtesy of the Associated Press:

He was celebrating along with Bolt — even picking up his friend — carrying the American flag around the track for several minutes after the race and was shocked when an official told him of the DQ.

UPDATE (10:28 a.m.): The Associated Press is reporting that the U.S. is protesting Spearmon’s disqualification. U.S. teammate Shawn Crawford, who finished fourth, was deemed third after the DQ.

UPDATE (11:29 a.m.): The U.S. has dropped its appeal of Spearmon’s disqualification, but the U.S. has now “lodged a protest against Churandy Martina, the silver medallist in the men’s 200m final,” according to The Australian.

Here’s more from the report:

The Americans then claimed Martina, who was fourth in the 100m behind another world record-breaking performance by Bolt, also stepped outside of his lane.

If disqualified, Crawford would bump up to silver and Walter Dix, a fellow American representative, will move to bronze.

UPDATE (12:33 p.m.): Wow. This one just keeps getting weirder and weirder. The American’s appeal against Martina has succeeded. Martina was stripped of his silver medal, moving Crawford to silver and Dix to bronze. This is just mind boggling.

We’ll let you know if anything else crazy happens, like Michael Johnson flying to China to fist fight Bolt for the right to be the best fighter on the track. I’ve got Johnson coming out on top of that bout with a knockout in 35.25 seconds.

We’ll update as more information becomes available.

Photo by Greg Baker, Associated Press

– Brandon Marcello

Filed under: Uncategorized by Brandon Marcello. Posted on: August 20, 2008 at 9:14 am