In the Olympic 400H semi-finals, Ducos clearly hooked the hurdles on the back straight. Whether an official was never assigned to monitor this area of the track, or the assigned official let it slide, negligence resulted in Ducos moving on to the finals. Worst of all the repercussion was DeSantos was not an auto qualifier and nearly missed making the finals. One of the top hurdlers in the world nearly missed the finals. Where was the Brazilian appeal?
In this video of the Olympic 400 hurdle final, you can see Ducos hook 3 hurdles in a row (from the 17 second mark until the 25 second mark). Ducos was DQ'd for hooking the hurdles at the NCAA meet. (His left foot goes around the side of the hurdle, instead of over it). He should have also been DQ'd at the Olympics (he got 4th). He is French though...
I am guessing he was not DQed because no official was looking at him enough to notice it real-time and no team appealed it. Given that he did it in the semis, if someone had appealed then we would have known. That being said, I haven’t seen them actually DQ someone for it - remember Warholm hooked a hurdle in the semis at Budapest and their review allowed him to advance. The Ducos angle may have been more favourable towards DQ if it had been appealed though. Not sure why Zurich didn’t DQ him as I remember CJ Allen set a PB last year in the Diamond League and was DQed for hooking 1 hurdle. Maybe Ducos not being in the lead again meant they weren’t really checking for him.
Given he does this as a habit though I don’t know why there wouldn’t be at least one official in any race he does that watches specifically him.
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