2016 Olympic Games

Men's 1500: Centrowitz and Blankenship Make Final, Andrews DQ'd

Men's 1500: Centrowitz and Blankenship Make Final, Andrews DQ'd

UPDATE 2: USATF says that their protest on behalf of Andrews was unsuccessful. He won't advance to the final. Americans Matt Centrowitz and Ben Blankenship

Aug 18, 2016 by Dennis Young
Men's 1500: Centrowitz and Blankenship Make Final, Andrews DQ'd
UPDATE 2: USATF says that their protest on behalf of Andrews was unsuccessful. He won't advance to the final.​ Americans Matt Centrowitz and Ben Blankenship will compete for medals in the final at 8:00 PM Eastern time on Saturday night. An explanation of Andrews's disqualification and protest, plus a full list of qualifiers, appear below.




​UPDATE 1: ​Andrews is listed in the results as disqualified. His agent, Ray Flynn, tweeted he was pushed inside the curb and that Andrews' camp and USATF are protesting on that basis.

Andrews was disqualified under rule 163.4, which states:

"An athlete shall not be disqualified if he
(a) is pushed or forced by another person to step or run outside his lane or on or inside the kerb or line marking the applicable border, or
(b) steps or runs outside his lane in the straight, any straight part of the diversion from the track for the steeplechase water jump or outside the outer line of his lane on the bend, with no material advantage thereby being gained and no other athlete being jostled or obstructed so as to impede his progress.

Note: Material advantage includes improving his position by any means, including removing himself from a "boxed" position in the race by having stepped or run inside the inside edge of the track."

So Andrews right now is appealing that he did not "improve his material advantage" by stepping inside the rail. Here's some video of the relevant portion of the race; NBC and the IOC will probably have it pulled down soon.


​Automatic qualifiers​:​
​Heat 1

3:39.73 Asbel Kiprop (KEN)
3:39.88 Taoufik Makhloufi (ALG)
3:39.96 Nick Willis (NZL)
3:39.99 Ben Blankenship (USA)
3:40.05 Charlie Grice (GBR)

​Heat 2
3:39.42 Ronald Kwemoi (KEN)
3:39.46 Ayanleh Souleiman (DJI)
3:39.61 Matt Centrowitz (USA)
3:40.02 Ryan Gregson (AUS)
3:40.67 Ronald Musagala (UGA) 

​Time qualifiers
3:40.11 Abdalaati Iguider (MAR)
3:40.20 Nate Brannen (CAN)