Trolling for dollars... wrote:
Just watched the "front on" view, and yeah, clearly Rowbury interfered with Muir. Hard to say who would have won if Rowbury kept her line.
Just re-watched several times over and was finally able to freeze frame it on my phone at the 5:48 mark. That is the moment Shannon' torso and arm appear to start veering to her right (towards Muir's line). More interesting are their respective feet. Shannon's right foot is down and a full 3-4" to the left of the lane one line. Muir's left foot is down, well behind Shannon's, and is nearly on the line. Ergo, foot placement analysis suggests Shannon is fully within her lane and it is Muir who is encroaching, but torso's appear to be the reverse.
This is exactly one stride before the line, as Shannon's left foot lands on the line after that. At almost exactly that moment she is throwing out both arms (in victory), and her left arm and whole upper torso lean across Muir's line, making it look like blocking if you are not paying attention to the specifics. The specifics being that she is already crossing the line first and there is nothing Muir or anyone else could have done, race over.
Backing up to that one stride before the line specifics, it is clear from foot placements that she's already passed Muir, so the final result is actually not at all in doubt. She simply lunged for the line awkwardly/veering right, perhaps purposefully, but it hardly mattered at that point. Given all the above its easy to see why no protest was filed by Muir, she knew she was beat and it would have been bush league to whine over it. Glad to see sportsmanship still exists.
As a side note, re-watch the 2000 Olympic men's 10,000 finish front angle replay = Tergat on the pole runs/leans Geb into lane 3 in the final strides, but Geb still wins. Then they hug like real men after the finish, no hard feelings, sportsmanship defined.
