Saturday, February 22 - USA Indoor Track & Field Championship, Albuquerque, NM

In a stunning overruling of its own ruling, USATF has disqualified the now former USA Indoors 3000-meter champion Gabe Grunewald of Brooks Running and Team USA Minnesota.

Grunewald and fourth-place finisher Jordan Hasay made contact in the bell lap of the championship race. The field official raised the yellow flag indicating contact, Grunewald's agent Paul Doyle says, but the head official decided that it was not grounds for disqualification and awarded Grunewald her first national title.

After the race, Nike Oregon Project's Alberto Salazar, coach of Hasay and runner-up Shannon Rowbury, filed a protest. According to Team USA Minnesota coach Dennis Barker and Doyle, that protest was overruled by the same head official that made the initial ruling on the track. The AlSal/Nike camp then appealed the ruling to a three-person USATF committee, which also ruled in Grunewald's favor.

And that's where the issue should have remained.

Instead, Barker says, there was "intense pressure" around the officials' table, describing Nike employees "hovering," and according to Doyle, 20 minutes later, after the final ruling was made, the ruling was opened again.

Barker says that according to USATF rules, once the complaint has been denied and the appeal fails, that's the end of it unless new information is presented. From what he could tell, USATF simply reviewed the same tape it had already seen twice.

Grunewald was DQ'd, Barker and Doyle confirm. USATF has not issued a statement, and multiple attempts to contact them have not been answered.

Barker filed his appeal on Grunewald's behalf, which failed, and then appealed to the committee (which had just ruled in his favor), which also failed.

As it stands, Grunewald has been disqualified, and Barker says Rowbury and Hasay are now being tapped for the national team. This has not been confirmed, and USATF has not yet released the national team names.

But meanwhile, there is a veritable shitstorm on Twitter comprised of both fans and athletes as they voice their displeasure for Salazar, Nike, and USATF.

In the meantime, Doyle says the next step is to inform USATF that if Grunewald is not reinstated, on Monday he will file a section nine arbitration petition.
 
Meanwhile, Jesse Williams, Brooks Running Sports Marketing Manager, tweeted, "I can tell you this . . . [Grunewald] will receive her bonus for being Indoor National 3k Champion."

"This is a girl that beat cancer twice and has just made her first team, won her first national title, and it's being taken away from her," Doyle says. "We just won't stand for it. It's not the right decision, so we're going to fight it to the end."

(link)

Unfortunate for everyone involved. George, are you saying Grunewald didn't interfere or are you referring to the manner the ruling was handled? From my POV it appears she's directly behind Hasay and then accelerates right into the back of her. You could argue Hasay slowed but based on Grunewald kick the final lap it seems more likely she was chomping at the bit to go around her.

I was more focused on Grunewald than Hasay and didn't see a mis step. I'll have to view the video again. But I agree, it didn't appear Grunewald checked up. I just assumed, based on her flying finish, that it looked like she almost couldn't help herself to get going. I guess the final decision is still up in the air. Salazar and the USTAF both come off badly. At worst you could accuse Grunewald of aggressive racing.

video

10:08  it appears that Grunewalds outside leg is on the inside of Hasays inside leg. That is starting the turn, but it really looks like Hasays foot/ ankle was clipped on the butt kick by Grunewalds outside thigh.  If that is true then it would have turned Hasay slightly towards the inside and completely thrown her off her stride.

You can see Hasays left arm shooting out for balance before Grunewald makes any arm/ back/ hand contact.

I'm in the Grunewald camp but it's possible after she felt contact Hasay was thrown off stride and moving to the right was unintentional. I can't imagine why Hasay would just give up the inside lane to Grunewald unless you're accusing Hasy of intentional blocking. It looked like Grunewald was behind her rather than on her shoulder when Hasay moved to the right.

Salazar looks very bad with this one. If you followed the news over the weekend and saw all the comments, not to mention the on track protest, from a lot of the athletes this was one of the most unpopular decisions in a long long time. The way this was handled was complete bullshit and fans the flames of those who believe Nike $'s run the USATF.

I haven't watched the video yet, but hate to see this happen to Grunewald. I heard her speak last year at one of my favorite events (they bring in athletes who are also cancer survivors) and she has fought through a lot to reach this point in her career.