London 14 Aug 2017: A dramatic last 100 metres saw leader Lyu Xiuzhi disqualified, leaving Chinese team-mate Yang Jiayu to take gold in the women’s 20km race walk.
The chief judge’s red card was flashed in front of Lyu with seconds left, but it was so quick, and caught in the moment, she made for the line regardless only to discover her finish had already been recorded.
A cracking race came down to just four when the afterburners were lit at 16 kilometres, and the order of medals was still undecided with the line in sight.
Lyu and Yan put the hammer down to forge a tiny gap between them and Maria Guadalupe González, but the Mexican is made of strong stuff as demonstrated winning a silver at the 2016 Olympics and gold at last year’s IAAF Walking Team Challenge.
Even with the pain etched on her face, González strove to get level with Yang and Lyu until the judge’s intervention decided the order of things. Read more on IAAF
