Team GB star Jeremiah Azu was disqualified from his heat in the men’s 100m sprint at the Olympics on Saturday morning. A false start was called after the 23-year-old was deemed to have gone too early in the very first heat of the day.
Azu claimed to have reacted to a sound from the crowd, bursting away from the start line before hearing the siren that denotes a false start. He walked back to the start line and seemed to realise that it was he who had gone slightly too soon.
Jamaican sprinter Kishane Thompson stood next to Azu and attempted to look for a replay around the stadium to see what had happened as Azu waited for an announcement over the tannoy.
It was declared that Azu, who is Wales’ fastest man, had made a false start and had been disqualified from the race. He walked towards the stewards and was shown a replay, but was passionately protesting his innocence, and soon claimed he had reacted to a sound.
Azu, who appeared devastated as he walked back inside, confirmed that he would launch a protest as soon as possible to ensure he gets the opportunity to qualify for the men’s 100m semi-final. However, should his appeal fail, his Olympics will be over.
“I’m feeling great, so it’s a shame,” he said. “There’s a lot of crowd noise, the pole vault’s going on, and I reacted to the sound [of that] and they’re saying I can’t run under protest, so I’m going to go back to the team and, hopefully, they can sort it out.
“They said maybe I can run by myself after, but, yeah, I’m just going to wait it out and see.
“It’s an Olympic crowd, they’re so excited. I don’t fault them, but we’re on the start line and somebody’s reacted to something that’s going on [in the pole vault] and it set me off — so I’m going to see what happens now.”
Azu was not the only sprinter to be disqualified. Aaron Brown of Canada also suffered a false start despite the crowd being much quieter at the start of the eighth heat.
Meanwhile, it was a much better 100m first round for Britain’s Louie Hinchcliffe, who won his race on his Olympic debut. The 22-year-old’s incredible 9.98-second sprint was fast enough to defeat reigning world champion Noah Lyles.
Hinchcliffe has the experienced coach Carl Lewis in his corner and they are aiming to reach the 100m final, which will be contested on Sunday evening.
The Englishman said afterwards: “I had to get my game back from London so it felt great but the job’s not done. I don’t want to get too ahead of myself.”
