Victor Kiplangat was forced to double back on his progress during the men's marathon in Birmingham. Photo / BBC Sport
Victor Kiplangat was forced to double back on his progress during the men's marathon in Birmingham. Photo / BBC Sport
Viktor Kiplangat claimed Ghana's first-ever Commonwealth Games marathon gold on Sunday but only after narrowly avoiding disaster, after he took a wrong turn on the course as he closed in on the finish line.
Kiplangat broke away from eventual silver medalist Alphonce Felix Simbu of Tanzania in the latter stagesof the race but his efforts were almost undone as he came to a place on the road where it divided into two lanes, split by a median barrier.
Without a clear path to follow, Kiplangat ran down the left side of the road for approximately 100 metres before realising he had made a mistake.
Olympic commentator for the BBC Steve Cram could be heard remarking: "Oh has he gone the wrong way? Oh no, no, no, no, no."
Cram gave the incident context by blaming the event organisers for the obvious confusion felt by Kiplangat.
"It isn't his fault. There is a blue line and he followed the vehicle... There should have been a lead bike. That is terrible."
British athletics legend Paula Radcliffe explained how a blue line, painted on the road, is supposed to guide the runners, but it is often broken up into sections and not always clear.
"Often the blue line can disappear too just because they haven't marked out a particular section, and it is a dash not a solid blue line.
"He didn't notice it had gone the other side of the median down the middle of the road, then of course when he did realise he couldn't get through the barriers and just cross over."
Victor Kiplangat gives thanks to the heavens for, eventually, guiding him to victory. Photo / AP
Instead, Kiplangat was forced to double back on his journey to make his way onto the proper marathon course.
Thankfully, the 22-year-old had built up a hefty lead over Simbu and safely finished the race by more than 90 seconds in a time of 2:10:55, just short of the Games record of 2:09.12 set by England's Ian Thompson in Christchurch in 1974.
