George Mills and Hugo Hay of France were involved in a collision during the final stages of a men’s 5,000-meter race, which resulted in the runner from Team GB finishing in 18th place.
George Mills, who competes for Team Great Britain, challenged Hugo Hay, who competes for France, after the two racers collided in the final straight of a men’s 5,000-meter heat. Hay is a member of the French team.
Around the time when the runners were getting close to the final stage of the race, Mills and Hay were involved in a collision. Consequently, the Great British Runner was brought to its knees as a consequence of this encounter.
This directly led to the injuries of three more runners who were participating in the commotion that was taking place. It was as a consequence of this that Mills finished in 18th place.
Mills accosted Hay following his arrival at the finish line about thirty seconds after the leader, and the two of them then engaged in intense verbal exchanges with one another after that.
Hay came in ninth place overall, while Narve Gilje Nordas of Norway emerged victorious in the heat competition.
Due to the fact that Mills did not finish in the top eight, it appeared as though his chances of automatically qualifying for the ultimate final had been eliminated.
After some time had passed, however, British Athletics (BA) made the announcement on social media that Mills would be competing in the final.
Because of the accident, the race referee advanced Mills and three other athletes: Dominic Lokinyomo Lobalu, who was a member of the Refugee Olympic squad; Mike Foppen, who was from the Netherlands; and Thierry Ndikumwenayo, who was from Spain.
Immediately after the incident, Mills gave an interview to the BBC in which he stated, “I think it’s pretty clear” what had occurred, followed by the statement, “I got stepped out on.”
“I was about to kick into the straight, and boom, the French lad took me down,” according to his account.
“I haven’t seen [any official], but I’m pretty sure BA will be on it to put an appeal in, I hope,” said the 25-year-old son of Danny Mills, who played football for Leeds and England in the past.
The fact that I was able to complete the first two thousand in under six minutes was, in my opinion, the ideal qualification moment for me.
“I was thinking to myself, ‘Nobody in this field can race away from me at this pace,’ so I was just sitting there, waiting, and biding my time. I was going to start the home straight, and suddenly I struck the deck. What are your options?”
During his commentary on the heat for the BBC, Steve Cram, who had previously won a silver medal at the Olympics, stated that Mills had put himself in a “bad position from a long way out; he should have checked out much earlier.”
He concluded by saying, “George, from what I can see there, did do a big push there in the home straight, and it will be really interesting to see what they [race officials] decide.”
On Saturday at 6:50 p.m., Mills will compete in the final of the 5,000-meter race.