A father sees that his son is thirsty. Very, very thirsty. Then he hands a bottle of water to his grateful son, who takes a drink.
Is that so bad?
Well, yes, it's a violation of the rules during a marathon, and it resulted in Esteban Prado being disqualified Sunday as winner of the Orange County Marathon. Prado led most of the 26.2-mile course and finished in 2 hours, 24 minutes and 54 seconds.
It's called unauthorized assistance in marathon parlance (runners can only get water at official hydration stations) and apparently the fact that Prado's father approached him on a bicycle to hand him the water made the violation a double no-no.
“We were forced to disqualify a participant after it was confirmed that he received unauthorized assistance from an individual on a bicycle, in violation of USA Track & Field rules and our race regulations,” said race director Gary Kutschar. “We take these rules seriously to ensure the fairness and integrity of our event for all competitors.”
The incident recalled two other disqualifications, including one 10 years ago at the same OC Marathon.
Runner-up Stephan Shay's brother produced a video of race winner Mohamed Fadil accompanied by a friend on a bike. Kutscher, who has been race director since 2009, disqualified Fadil because, in addition to supplying him with water, the cycling partner was walking illegally.
“We could see that yes, in fact, the cyclist was riding illegally, so to speak,” Kutcher said. As a result, I determined that this was something that needed to be reversed and put Stephan Shay as our winner.”
The video was taken by Stephan Shay's brother Nathan, who also confronted the cyclist for violating the rules.
To which the cyclist responded: “Why don't you relax, buddy? “Just because they hit your brother.”
The Shays had the final say and Stephan took home the first place medal and a $4,000 prize.
The stakes were higher last November when Ethan Hermann finished the Philadelphia Marathon in 2:17:03, nearly a minute shy of the 2024 US Olympic Marathon Trials qualifying mark of 2:18:00. . However, Hermann, who was running his first marathon, was disqualified and denied the opportunity to participate in the Olympic trials because his coach handed him a bottle of water at a hydration station.
Only designated volunteers can do that. It seems petty, although the rule exists to help ensure that runners are not given a liquid that may contain something performance-enhancing.
“I ran my first marathon in front of my favorite city in the world, my family, my friends, my second family and so many people who treat me like family,” Hermann posted on Instagram. “I had the most special day and I ran with my heart and legs.
“That said, when a first-time marathon runner comes a learning curve. He was not as educated as he thought above all, not all the right things happened as they should and I was eventually disqualified from the race.”
As for Sunday's OC Marathon, the winner is now Jason Yang of San Pedro with a time of 2:25.11.
