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by pltm
(PLTM) - BVI's Ashley Kelly, who competed in the 200m heats yesterday, Monday, August 15 at the Rio Olympics, said that she didn't know what to do when one of the athletes came into her lane during the race.
"I felt I had a very good start, but I wasn’t sure what to do when Veronica Campbell-Brown stayed in my lane after drifting across on the bend. I’m not blaming her because I lost my focus and I should have come back to thinking about my performance," she said after the race.
Drifting to the outside is allowed on the stretch, provided it does not interfere with other runners within their assigned lanes. Chef de Mission Stephanie Russ Penn and Head Athletics Coach Winston Potter reviewed the video tape of the run with IAAF technician officials and it was deemed that there was no interference since there was enough distance and cadence was not impeded. The heat wrapped up Ashley’s participation at her first Olympic Games.
Ashley ran in heat 9 lane 7, bib number 879, and finished in 5th place with a time of 23.61.
The top spot went to Edidiong Ofonime Odiong of Brunei with a time of 22.74 with second place going to Semoy Hackett of Trinidad and Tobago with a time of 22.78, qualifying both runners for the semi-finals scheduled for today. “Overall I have had a great experience at Rio 2016 and look forward to enjoying some of the competitions and to supporting Eldred Henry at his shot put event on Thursday," she related. Eldred Henry competes in his first Olympic Games when he throws the shot put in the qualifying rounds on the morning of Thursday, August 18 at 8:55am BST (7.55am EST).
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