Athletics repechage descends into farce with a four-man race amid mass withdrawals

Athletics’ controversial new repechage system, in use for the first time at these Paris Olympics, descended into farce on Monday morning when eight runners failed to show up for their races a day after another athlete deliberately finished last.

Amid bizarre scenes in the French capital, one athlete told Telegraph Sport the new repechage system “doesn’t make sense”, while another described it as “brutal”, suggesting it puts runners at a near-insurmountable disadvantage.

Making its debut in international competition, the repechage system has replaced the old ‘fastest losers’ method, which previously saw the quickest non-automatic qualifiers – those who failed to finish in the top two or three – progress based on their times. In Paris, every runner who does not automatically qualify from their heats at distances from 200m to 1500m then competes in an extra repechage round, offering another chance to make the semi-finals.

Still in its infancy after less than four days of track competition in Paris, the repechage has already proved far more controversial than envisaged with some athletes tactically easing down when out of contention in their heats to save themselves for a second bite of the cherry.

There were then even more farcical scenes in the men’s 400m repechage round on Monday morning when eight of the 26 runners did not show up to the start line, and another dropped out mid-race. One race suffered the ignominy of four people not appearing, leaving just three runners marooned in lanes three, four and eight.

It is thought the eight absentees chose not to put themselves through the hardship of an additional draining 400m race and instead save themselves for the 4x400m relay later in the programme. All three Japanese 400m runners did not make the startline, suggesting team orders had come into play ahead of the relay.

Athletes who compete in the repechage must complete four races if they make the Olympic final, whereas those fortunate enough to progress automatically from the heats will race only three times.

‘There wasn’t enough time to recover’

Lithuania’s Gabija Galvydyte clocked a personal best time in the women’s 800m heats and would have progressed as one of the ‘fastest losers’ under the previous system. But she then failed to advance from the repechage.

“There wasn’t enough time to recover,” she said. “I raced at 8.30pm, went to sleep at 2am and then I had to wake up early for the repechage in the morning.

“I’m a bit confused that everyone makes the repechage so if you see that you’re not going to finish in the top three you can just jog and you’ll still make it. It doesn’t make sense.

“I tried to compete for third place so I went all out in my heat and finished fourth. I tried to go all the way, gave it my all, got a personal best and it cost all my emotion.”

Wary of suffering a similar fate, a number of athletes have attempted to game the system by conserving energy once out of contention in the heats. On Sunday, American 110m hurdler Freddie Crittenden strolled out of his blocks and slowly jogged over the barriers, finishing in 18.27 seconds – almost five seconds behind the winner.

He explained he had deliberately chosen to come last because he had been struggling with an injury and wanted to give his body more time to recover before Tuesday’s repechage round.

“It was an intentional choice,” he said. “Everyone gets through to the repechage… so I decided to just not make an emotional choice, make a smart choice, give my body time to recover a little bit.”

Australian 1500m runner Stewie McSweyn crashed out of the repechage a day after posting a time in the heats that would have been quick enough to progress as a ‘fastest loser’ under the old system.

“It’s brutal,” he said. “The standard of the men’s 1500m is so good that you have 24 hours less rest than everyone else and you’re going to be really up against it. It’s exciting for the crowd, which I like. But it makes it difficult. I don’t think we’re going to have too many miracle stories of guys coming from the repechage into the final.”

His prediction was proven correct with none of the six repechage qualifiers finishing higher than eighth in Sunday night’s 1500m semi-finals. Their fate was replicated in the women’s 800m semi-finals, where no repechage qualifier fared better than fifth.

Announcing the decision to implement the repechage at these Olympics, World Athletics president Sebastian Coe in 2022 explained: “This is an innovation which will make progression in these events more straightforward for athletes and will build anticipation for fans and broadcasters.

“The repechage rounds will give more exposure to our sport during the peak Olympic period and will be carefully scheduled to ensure that every event on our Olympic programme retains its share of the spotlight.”

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