(Newswire.net — August 16, 2017) — American long jumper Brittney Reese won a gold medal with a distance of 7.02m, Russian Darya Klisina won silver with 7m and the third place went to Olympic champion Tanja Bartoletta (USA) who jumped 6.97m. Another athlete jumped over 7m, but not according to the official statement of the judges.
Serbian Ivana Spanovic jumped over 7m but the judges measured a trail that was left in the sand by the corner of the paper number that fell off of her back.
The Serbian team officially protested and the winner ceremony was postponed until video footage was reviewed. After a while, judges dismissed the appeal of the Serbian team.
The video showed the exact moment Spanovic’s feet touch the sand well over 7m. However, the poorly attached number on her back got loose and touched the ground as well, leaving the mark.
Bad luck, the judges say, but the Serbian team claims that there was no mark left in the sand before the 7m line and the official footage clearly shows Ivana’s jump above 7m. The judges dismissed claims and pronounced the winners.
“By inspecting the footage, the only clear clue in the sand is a print exceeding seven meters,” said Jevrosimovic,“ the president of the athletics Association of Serbia. Ivana Spanovic is the victim of an electronic error,” Jevrosimovic added, referring to a machine that measures the last trail on the sand.
Spanovic, whose personal record is 7.24m didn’t hide her disappointment, but she acted as a champion and congratulated the winner.
“I couldn’t imagine this outcome of competition”, Spanovic says. “as hard as it is for me to say, but these things happened in sports. Simply, sooner or later it has to come,” she added referring to the near win situation.
Spanovic refused to comment on allegations that the decision was purposefully made favoring the American athlete.
The London World Indoor Athletics Championship was the last athletics meeting to use paper numbers pinned to contestants’ backs. Ironically, the judges in London ignored the very reason officials decided to ban paper numbers and “washed their hands” of the incident blaming the distance measuring machine.
Numerous sports commentators reported in disbelief that Spanovic was “robbed” by judges. “I mean, it is crazy that you lose a competition because the number on your back, right?” a commentator from Spain asked Spanovic.
“Yeah, tell me about it,” Spanovic Replied.