Pan American Games: women's competition affected by unusual error

From Chile, journalist Eduardo Regonesi gives us more details about this unusual error. teleSUR

Transcript

00:00 An unusual event occurred on Sunday at the Pan American Games in Santiago de Chile in

00:16 the women's 20 km racewalk.

00:19 An error in the official length of the track adversely affected the female athletes.

00:23 Our correspondent Eduardo Ragonesi was there and has the full story.

00:30 An unreal day of sports happened this morning at O'Higgins Park with the 20 km women's

00:35 racewalk.

00:36 The unbelievable part was not that Peru obtained gold and bronze, or that Ecuador got silver

00:40 medal.

00:41 A mistake on the measurement of the track, on which for every kilometer there was a difference

00:46 of 200 meters, made the winner of the competition, Peru's Kimberly Garcia, to finish her race

00:51 with an unbelievable time of 1h 12m 26s, way under the world record of 1h 25m 51s, currently

01:01 held by Spain's Maria Garcia.

01:04 Something wasn't right.

01:05 The athletes knew it, the coaching staff knew it, and the crowd also figured it out.

01:09 Finally, the organizing committee blamed the Association of Pan American Athletics, who

01:14 are in charge of measuring and regulating all tracks.

01:18 The athletes were able to keep their medals, but their times are not valid and the possibility

01:22 of qualifying directly to Paris 2024, gone.

01:27 For the men's turns, the mistake was fixed and the race took place normally, where Alexander

01:32 Hurtado from Ecuador took gold, closing a great race for South American athletes.

01:37 The podium was completed by Caio Bonfim of Brazil and Andres Oliva from Mexico, who valued

01:41 his third place.

01:43 An embarrassing morning came to a close in Santiago 2023, in what was the restart of

01:48 athletics at the Pan American Games.