Azu’s appeal against 100m disqualification rejected

GB sprinter Jeremiah Azu suffered the heartbreak of being disqualified from the Olympic men’s 100m heats in Paris because of a false start, after his appeal was turned down.

Azu fought his case after the sanction, citing the noise in the stadium with the pole vault ongoing and French interest getting the crowd excited.

The 23-year-old Welshman was not allowed to race and his subsequent protest was turned down, leaving him bereft.

“Honestly I reacted to a sound,” Azu told BBC One.

“It’s a shame, the crowd is so excited, they have got the pole vault going on, the French fans are in here.

“It’s a shame they did not let me run under protest. I am not sure what rules are being used.

“I was saying I want to run under protest. Any other race they allow you to run and then afterwards you review it. It’s the Olympics so it is clearly different rules.”

Although Azu’s individual dream is over he can at least expect to be involved in GB’s 4x100m men’s relay next week.

Former Olympic 200m champion Michael Johnson told the BBC: “You are at the Olympic Games, you know that you can’t start before the gun and that was a blatant false start.

“The pressure is not the issue because this is the Olympic Games, you are a professional athlete, this what you do.

“The issue is whether or not he did hear something, because if he did that is a legitimate excuse. Nobody else heard it though, that’s his problem [with the appeal], he was the only one.

“He is right about not understanding the rules because I don’t either. Typically you are able to run under protest but I guess they have a different situation here at the Olympics where it is blatant, which it was, they don’t allow you to run under protest.

“They should just let you run under protest and let you sort it out later.”