Ennis riled as organisers’ hurdle blunder foils personal best time
RED-FACED organisers launched an investigation last night after their blunder denied British heptathlete Jessica Ennis a personal best time in the 100m hurdles at the GreatCity Games in Manchester.
London 2012 medal hope Ennis left a strong field trailing with a record time of 12.75 seconds, only to have it chalked off because staff laid out nine sets of hurdles instead of the regulation 10.
“I am so annoyed,” said Ennis. “I still had a good competitive race, but I’ve just not got the result I wanted. I can’t believe that. It’s a great event but that’s a massive, massive mess-up.”
A spokesperson for event organisers Nova International admitted to “a technical error”, adding: “We’ll conduct a thorough investigation and find out what happened and why and by whom. It’s a very unfortunate mistake, we’re very unhappy about it.”
Sprinter Dwain Chambers came second to American Wallace Spearmon in a 150m race, his first since his Olympic ban was revoked.