Imagine flying across the world, training for months to run a personal best or world championship standard, only to be told the race was several metres short and your time didn’t count. Well, that was the reality for several middle-distance runners at the On Track Nights Vienna meet on June 14, where seven of the eight 800m races were started from the wrong line, voiding their results.
According to the results, runners were lined up at the 400m start line—four to 16 metres ahead of where the 800m start should have been on this particular track. The mistake affected every lane on the six-lane track except athletes assigned to lane 1.
The mishap meant that four athletes who had run under the men’s 800m World Athletics qualifying standard of 1:44.50 had their times annulled, along with their world championship dreams.
German distance runner Marc Tortell, one of the four men who originally hit the standard, took to social media to share his disbelief. “Next time you think you’re having a bad day,” Tortell wrote, “just remember people travel around the world to run in circles twice and get told 10 minutes after running one of the best races of their life that they started at the wrong point and their time would be disqualified.
“It would’ve been nice if I had known beforehand.”
On Sunday, meet organizers issued a statement on social media confirming the error: “All the results except the women’s R2TOKIO 800m race have been annulled. We deeply regret this and are incredibly sorry for all the athletes affected, who are now left without a performance in excellent conditions due to a human error.”
A follow-up statement clarified that athletes in lane 1 would still have their results recognized and receive prize money, as their start position was accurate. “Wherever people work, mistakes can happen—even in places where they shouldn’t,” organizers added.
It took seven heats before Continental Tour race officials realized the mistake. While it may seem surprising that professional athletes didn’t notice the incorrect start line, on multi-use tracks with overlapping markers, start lines for different events can be easy to misread, especially in the heat of competition.
Still, for underpaid athletes whose rankings and sponsorships generally depend on these races, the consequences are devastating.
