I'm an American. That was a blatant disqualification, even though I picked Hocker to win before the meet.
I watched the race only a few hours ago, for the first time without knowing any details. We had a health situation in the family so I fell 2 days behind watching the tapes.
As soon as I saw the race I Googled the name Cole Hocker. I would have been shocked if it didn't include the word disqualified. How is there any debate at all?
It becomes a totally different event if you can create your own lane via tactics like that. Hocker has become a one-trick pony and somehow wasn't bright enough to understand that a congested semifinal wasn't going to play out like an all-out final. For one thing, he's got a huge guy in Stefan Nillessen on the rail. That in itself should have been a minor hint.
Without time qualifiers one heat and semifinal after another turns into a logjam mad scramble near the rail. Has Cole Hocker been paying any attention? You aren't birthrighted the primrose lane.
Hocker was stuck so he turned his head quickly right. If nobody had been there he would have been fine. But since others were charging he panicked and disquialified himself. Kudos to Goucher and Swangard for immediately recognizing the possibility and to Lewis Johnson for asking the appropriate question and applying the correct term, "washed out the back."
