Video: Why Al-Azemi Was Disqualified From The Olympics

(Click on the image to watch the video)

I know the Olympics are over but I just found a video that shows the actual race in which Kuwaiti Runner Mohammad Al-Azemi was disqualified. It was round 1 of the men’s 800m.

The Olympics committee disqualified Kuwaiti runner Mohammad Al-Azemi (black shorts & blue t-shirt) from the 800m race for “obstruction” of Polish runner Marcin Lewandowski (red shorts & white t-shirt).

Both runners finished the race. Al-Azemi came 3rd and qualified for the semi-finals. He was later surprised with his disqualification decision.

And even though the Polish runner finished the race last, he was put through to the semi-finals instead of Al-Azemi. “He was pushed by Al-Azemi and lost his pace” a statement said.

I kept rewinding the video over and over to see where the action happened. It seems like it did just 1 second before the video starts. You can see something isn’t normal in 00:01, the Polish runner immediately starts slowing down afterwards. That was definitely not a push though. Al-Azemi did a great job. Tough luck.