USATF Indoor Championships 2014

Report: Grunewald DQ'ed Post-Appeals

Report: Grunewald DQ'ed Post-Appeals

Feb 22, 2014 by Christopher Chavez
Report: Grunewald DQ'ed Post-Appeals

Gabriele Grunewald unleashed a kick at the end of the women's 3,000-meter run to blow past Nike Oregon Project runners Jordan Hasay and Shannon Rowbury en route to her first indoor national title. Coach Alberto Salazar has reportedly filed an appeal for a disqualification after physical contact between Grunewald and Hasay with approximately 300-meters left in the race. Team USA Minnesota coach Dennis Barker confirmed the appeal to Jon Gugala of Run Blog Run

Rowbury was the runner-up in 9:25.49 as Hasay finished fourth in 9:27.40. Rowbury will head to Sopot, Poland for the IAAF World Indoor Championships as the the top two runners qualified for the meet.

Barker claims Hasay stumbled after stepping on the inside rail of the track. He also said USATF denied Salazar’s appeal. The article also hints at another appeal following the initial appeal.

UPDATE: 8:30 p.m. CT - Grunewald has been disqualified, according to Barker's Twitter feed. Grunewald posted the following message at 8:10 p.m.

UPDATE: 9:26 p.m. CT - Reached out to Grunewald's agent, Paul Doyle. He issued the following statement as a rundown of what took place during and after the race.

 "Jordan 
Hasay was running on the outside of lane one with Gabe slightly behind her on the inside of lane one. In the straight away and into the start of the turn, Hasay was on the outside of the lane. In the middle of the turn, she cut into the inside of the lane and actually cut off Gabe. They had a slight incidental contact and then Gabe quickly moved outside and blew past her. That’s what happened in the race. 

Now the official had raised the flag, because of the contact. The head official came over, talked to the official that raised the flag and ruled that there was no infraction. 

So Hasay’s people filed a protest after the race. The protest went to the head official. The head official denied it saying that there was no infraction. Hasay’s people then filed an appeal. The appeal was denied as well. The three-person jury reviewed everything and then ruled there was no infraction and that was the final decision.

Twenty minutes later, the jury of appeals met again and then decided to disqualify Gabe. We then filed an appeal saying that she had not made any infraction and should not be disqualified. They denied that. We filed another appeal saying the jury of appeals had already made their decision and there was no new information, so that decision should have been final. They denied that appeal as well.”

Doyle said they will file a Section IX arbitration petition on Monday as they have the right to appeal this decision. 

Grunewald is unsure if she will compete in the women’s 1,500-meter final tomorrow. 

“She feels that she shouldn’t have to run (the 1,500-meter.) Her intention was to make the team in the 3,000 and then not run the 1,500. If she doesn’t want to run, she feels she’s made the team. We’re hopeful that would ultimately be the case. As of right now, she is trying to decide because her intention was not to run.”