The Australian men’s 4x400m relay team has been disqualified for an illegal handover at the Tokyo world championships, minutes after they had seemingly smashed a 41-year-old national record.
The team of Cooper Sherman, Reece Holder, Aidan Murphy and Tom Reynolds finished third in the fastest of the two heats in two minutes 58.00 seconds.
The time was the third fastest overall and would have seen Australia qualify automatically for Sunday’s final.
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But they were disqualified after third-leg runner Murphy was deemed to have stepped over the line before accepting the baton from Holder.
Australian officials immediately lodged an appeal but Tamsyn Manou said there was no case for it to be overturned.
“Oh no, oh god, we’re going to get disqualified,” she said in commentary on SBS as the first replays rolled.
“This is devastating. (Aidan) just put his leg on the wrong side. Aidan’s not experienced at 4x400 but they have practised it.”
Bruce McAvaney said: “So no national record. There’s a bit of air that’s just gone out of a very, very lovely balloon.”
Had the time stood it would have bettered the previous record of 2:59.70 set way back at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, when an Australian team including national 400m record holder Darren Clark and 1980 Olympic silver medallist Rick Mitchell finished fourth in the final.
Brazil’s team was also disqualified in Tokyo for the same infringement.
Botswana, featuring champion sprinter Letsile Tebogo, won the heat with Belgium and Great Britain also progressing.
The United States were a shock elimination after only finishing sixth in the first heat, which sent South Africa, Qatar and the Netherlands to the final.
The news was better for the Australian men’s 4x100m team featuring Connor Bond, Josh Azzopardi, Calab Law and anchored by Rohan Browning.
The group progressed to Sunday’s final as the fastest of the two non-automatic qualifiers in 38.21 seconds.
A stacked Jamaican team including 100m individual champion Oblique Seville was disqualified after botching the final changeover.
The Australian women’s 4x100m team (Ella Connolly, Bree Rizzo, Kristie Edwards and Torrie Lewis) made a mess of the first changeover and the women’s 4x400m squad (Mia Gross, Ellie Beer, Jemma Pollard and Carla Bull) also failed to advance.
- with 7NEWS
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