Australia’s men’s 4x100m relay champions have been robbed of their glorious gold medal moment in front of a crowd at the Commonwealth Games after dramatic late protests in Glasgow.
The medal ceremony was due to take place at 9.02pm local time (6.02am AEST) but was not held until a final decision arrived over two and a half hours later.
The verdicts took so long that workers were well into their stadium teardown, and fans had already long returned home, when they finally stepped onto the dais.
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“It always seems somewhat strange that a presentation ceremony for medals should be made in a relatively sparsely populated stadium,” commentator Tim Hutchings said.
“On this occasion that’s possibly the understatement of the week. But it is important that those medals are presented and in the right place in the arena.
“You’d hang around all night for it if it were you to receive a medal for a performance in the Commonwealth Games that was the pinnacle of many months of hard training.”
The protests stemmed from swift post-race disqualifications for Canada and South Africa.
Canada, the reigning Olympic champions, crossed the line second but were stripped soon after the finish. Their protest was successful but then a second appeal from elsewhere left the result in the air for another hour-plus.
The ceremony formally began at 11.32pm local time (8.32pm AEST) with Lachlan Kennedy, Josh Azzopardi, Calab Law, Rohan Browning and heat runner Chris Ius overjoyed to get their hands on their gold medals.
Canada accepted silver and Nigeria received bronze, with officials holding the line on South Africa’s disqualification.
Veteran Canadian Olympic reporter Devin Heroux tracked the situation on the ground in Glasgow, saying he had “never seen anything like” the protest delays.
The stadium teardown was in fact already underway when Australia’s mile stars Abbey Caldwell, Jess Hull and Claudia Hollingsworth stepped onto the dais at around 10.30pm local time to receive their gold, silver and bronze medals respectively.
Speaking immediately after their post-race celebrations, Browning said it was perhaps the scariest 100m of his life.
“I knew we were in a good position, I had no idea where the others were,” he told Channel 7.
“I could hear a commentator call Canada and just ran to the line.”
Browning was looking for redemption after he tripped over in the heats at Birmingham 2022.
“I’ve had to carry the burden of that for the past four years so I think this hopefully wipes the slate clean,” he said.
“It’s probably the most special moment of my career.”
Australia’s victory was their first in the event since 1974 and first medal of any colour since taking bronze in 2002.
Gold for Azzopardi was “unbelievable” after bitterly missing selection for the solo 100m.
Law said it was all about trusting each other, particularly out of lane eight.
Kennedy admitted it was a deliberate tactic to stretch out his handoff to Azzopardi in a bid to put the pressure on their rivals.
“We just sent it, we gave it eveything we had,” he said, paying credit to Chris Ius for his heat run.
“There’s so much that goes on behind the scenes that you guys wouldn’t even begin to think about, credit to everyone who’s helped us. We’re a team, it’s the only team sport for track and field, it goes to show that we got something right.”
Browning added: “Shoutout to Chris Ius and Eddie Nketia, they’re a big part of this team as well.”
Nketia made his Australian debut in the 100m earlier in the Commonwealth Games but did not get a run in the relay team.
