Heartbreak

Talk about heartbreak.

This morning I watched the men's 200 meter final live on Canadian Broadcasting. I saw Usain Bolt from Jamaica break Michael Johnson's world record with the time of 19.30.

After the race, the silver and bronze medalists Churandy Martina of Netherlands Antilles and Wallace Spearmon from the USA celebrated with Bolt on the track. They were holding and waving their respective flags proudly. A couple of minutes after the race, the CBC announcers said that Spearmon was disqualified. He was disqualified because he ran out of his lane for a couple of steps. Spearmon didn't know what happened and he continued to celebrate. The bronze medal was given to Shawn Crawford of the USA.

Later this afternoon, I read that the silver medalist, Churandy Martina of the Netherlands Antilles was also disqualified. He also stepped out of his lane on the turn. With that the fourth and fifth place runners, Shawn Crawford and Walter Dix both from the United States received the silver and bronze medals.

Crawford said after receiving the silver medal, "It feels kind of weird, it feels like a charity case."

I feel really bad for Martina and Spearmon. They ran a good race and tried to catch Bolt. They stepped out of their lanes and were disqualified because that is the rule. When I ran track in high school, I stepped on the line a lot. On the backstretch I always ran over the line. I never got disqualified. It also wasn't the Olympics.