Keely Hodgkinson will get her wish of competing against Audrey Werro in the 800m final at the European Championships in Birmingham, after the Swiss runner's appeal was upheld following her fall in the semi-final on Thursday afternoon.
Werro had held the lead entering the final 200m of her semi-final when she appeared to trip over her own leg, as shown in BBC footage. She launched an appeal hoping to feature in the final.
Appeal upheld, final expanded
An investigation was launched, with the referee confirming that Werro will be in Friday's final. Gabija Galvydyte, who also fell during the semi-final, will join her, meaning 10 athletes will compete for gold.
Hodgkinson, who won her semi-final minutes later, expressed her wish to have her rival in the race. “I heard an ‘oooh’ which is never a good sign,” Hodgkinson told the BBC. “But I don’t know what it looked like.”
Hodgkinson's reaction
When asked if seeing Werro's fall would have changed her approach, Hodgkinson replied: “No, not at all. You can’t worry about what other people are doing or what happens to them.”
She added: “Obviously it’s a real shame. I hope she’s okay and I hope she’s in the final tomorrow, that would be a really exciting race. All round, happy for myself to go through.”
Shortly before her race, Hodgkinson's coaches, Trevor Painter and Jenny Meadows, were removed from their seats, appearing to have been sitting in the wrong place and moved further back in the stand.
Werro and Cram weigh in
Werro spoke about the fall after the race, saying: “I was feeling really great until the last moment but unfortunately something happened and I was on the ground one second after. I hope I’ll be qualified for the final, I hope I’ll be able to go (to the final).”
She added: “Yes, this is the reason why. I finished the race and it’s always important to go until the end. Now we will see what happens.”
BBC commentator Steve Cram gave his verdict: "Look, she [Werro] tripped herself, that's reasonably evident. But look, we all want to see the best athletes in the final, even Keely said that. Referees have had a look at it, Galvydyte definitely should have been advanced as it wasn't her fault she tripped. Yes the push and shove of 800m running, these sort of things happen.
“I think the question marks now are going to be, I don't think Great Britain are going to counter-protest this, as I said Keely wants her to be there. The question probably is is Verro okay, that was a hard fall, she seemed to be okay, but it's also psychologically coming away from that, coming back tomorrow night, don't have time to really process it that much.
“But she's in, 10 in the final, it's going to be tough, it's going to change the way the race would have been run. Keely would have had one plan for Femke (Broeders-Bol), there was only Femke, but now she's going to go back to thinking about both of them, and that's going to obviously be a challenge. But we're getting the final that we wanted, that's the way to look at it."
