Tom Earnshaw
An Olympic athlete who purposely finished last in his race has qualified for the next stage and another chance of winning gold.
Crowds were left bemused at the weekend when USA star Freddie Crittenden seemed to finish last on purpose in his 110m hurdles heat.
But it was for a very specific reason, with the 30-year-old exploiting the rules of the competition to his benefit after nursing an injury in the early stages of the Olympics hurdles.
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On Sunday (4 August), Crittenden finished a whopping five seconds behind the winner of his race, which was Senegal's Louis François Mendy.
He recorded a time of 18.27 seconds are jogging his way to the finish, compared to Mendy's 13.31 seconds winning time.
But despite this, he has now found himself in the semi-finals of the 110m hurdles and just one race away from a chance of gold.
Crittenden had been exploiting a rule used in the 110m hurdles called the repechage round. And as the outcome suggests, it gives those who had a stinker the chance to redeem themselves and show their true talents.
World Athletics President Seb Coe said in 2022: "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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On flopping in the heat, Crittenden said it was deliberate.
"So, it was an intentional choice," he told the press.
"It was either get top three or everyone gets through to the repechage. Every athlete has a chance to race in repechage.
"So I decided to just not make an emotional choice, make a smart choice. Give my body time to recover a little bit from being aggravated.
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"Lean on my medical doctors. Lean on God. And just wait for repechage round. Come out [here] and try to kill it at the repechage round."
Crittenden took to the track this morning (6 August) in his repechage round and it was a race that he blitzed, coming first in his heats with a much improved time of 13.42 seconds.
He qualified for the semi-finals alongside second place Asier Martínez, from Spain, who was just 0.04 seconds slower than time.
The turnaround is quick, though, with Crittenden now having to race again tomorrow evening (7 August) on the Stade de France athletics track.
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Fans have been split on the repechage round. One said: "He knew he had another chance that’s why he jogged in the main heats, reasonable now [he's through]."
But a second wrote: "Freddie Crittenden is the reason that repechage shouldn’t exist. Using his heat as a warm up. Ridiculous."
And a third posted: "Very much dislike the whole concept of the repechage heats in track. Extends a process that is already too long, wears out athletes and gives a second chance to guys like Freddie Crittenden, who didn’t bother to show up for his preliminary heat in the hurdles."
The men's 110m hurdles final will take place on 8 August.