During the 'catastrophic' marathon, the course was misguided, and the finish line was changed to No. 1 in front of the finish line "Kenya's anger explodes... "Operational skit"

*This content was translated by AI.

In the marathon, an athlete missed the championship with the finish line just around the corner due to incorrect course guidance from competition officials and pace vehicles.

Britain's "Daily Mail" reported on the 10th (local time) that "a serious inexperience in operation at the L.A. marathon site led to a painful defeat for the frontrunner."

According to the media, Kenya's Michael Kimani Kamau, who was leading the race towards the finish line at the end of the race, suffered a series of bad luck. First, a Kenyan flag-waving female fan blocked her path and had to avoid it, while at the same time a volunteer in an orange shirt led him to the right of the bifurcated barricade. Even the pace vehicle, which needed to guide the correct course in the lead, moved to the right of the crossroads, and Camau followed without doubt.

But this was clearly the wrong path. Kamau, who should have gone straight on the original course, hurriedly turned away only after hearing urgent cries from the surrounding crowd. But between these short courses, Nathan Martin of the United States, who was lagging behind, chased furiously and won the championship just two steps away from Kamau.

The media said, "Without this happening, Kamau would have won the championship leisurely despite the last-minute decline in physical strength."

This is not the first time that the organizers of the tournament have induced them to leave the course. A similar accident occurred a week ago at the "2026 U.S. Half Marathon Championship" in Atlanta. Jess McClain, who was leading with less than two miles to go at the time, left the course 400 meters with two rivals due to misguided guidance from a leading guided bicycle.

McClain, who eventually turned and finished the rest of the race, was pushed back to ninth place, and Molly Vaughan, who was more than a minute behind, was fatally crowned champion. At that time, the departure of the course was found to have been a disaster caused by the accident in which the originally deployed police officer was hit by a car, and the rushed substitute police officer did not fully understand the course.

Although it was a clear failure of operation, the USATF rejected all protests and appeals by the players, saying, "There is no remedy in the regulations to reverse the results."

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*This content was translated by AI.