Ethan Hermann is robbed of an OTQ - Merber reports

This kind of officiating is an embarrassment. Akin to the retired losers who get off on dqing high schoolers for “uniform violations”.

I've known Ethan for a couple of years and he's genuinely one of the great stories in our sport. Kid graduates high school and goes to a school with no track or xc program. Joins local club and works his ass off and OTQs at age 23. We toss around the term "blue collar runner" a lot but this is the best example of it that I've seen.

This was his marathon debut and he had no idea of this rule. He response to it has been incredibly gracious even with such a bs call.

The coward who made the formal complaint resulting in the DQ needs to step forward, so the accused may face his accuser.

#FreeEthan

This is running there are rules.

If this guys gets DQed, then Kipchoge should too for his special treatment at marathon majors

Mixed emotions on this. It does seem ridiculous to do this and whomever reported the infraction seems petty. On the other hand, the coach should have been aware of the rule. The fault is his and he should be apologizing. A runner was DQd at the Orange County Marathon a few years back as he was receiving aid from a coach/friend riding a bicycle along the course. They claimed to have no idea that this was a rule and the bike rider was filmed getting confrontational with spectators and runners calling them out.

I also wonder if we will see more of this kind of enforcement due to the shenanigans of social media influencers? Matt Choi comes to mind as many have complained about his posse shooting video of his races from multiple bikes while in crowded fields. Not only is this annoying, but it is also a safety hazard. Others have been paced by cyclists, had bottles and gels handed to them, etc. during their well-publicized efforts. Have race officials seen enough and are starting to crack down?

Regardless of how you feel about this incident, I do feel that it is time to remind all runners, coaches, and influencers of the rules and to also ban practices that put others at risk (looking at you, influencers!).

Great effort, Ethan! Hopefully you improve to contender level by 2028.

Riding/pacing your athlete while giving splits, advice, coaching for a long stretch of a race is a way bigger deal than handing a guy a bottle. And at an aid station, not some random spot where no one else had aid. This is truly bogus and I agree there should be something short of DQ for such a minor transgression.

PRTC is known to bend the rules in “their” Philly races. I believe Ethan illegally paced (jumped in mid course) their top female a couple years ago who won prize money for being the top Philadelphian. And Gearinger got prize money as top Philadelphian the same year even though he lived in like Scranton at the time.

I see your point and I don't disagree with the decision right now. BUT... Agree with Glenn above, our sport needs something short of a COMPLETE DQ because of a minor infraction vs. being paced by a bike, handed things as needed by a bike, or other major infractions. A slight time penalty could have been given and his run still would have counted, OTQ would have been given, and we'd all be better off for it having a reminder of the rules. Instead, we steal a unique opportunity from a guy who may not have an impact at Trials, but sure would have had an amazing experience that would continue to fuel his efforts at our great sport.

Where were you on the day of the Philadelphia Marathon... standing near any officials?

I stand with Olympic Trials Qualifer Ethan Hermann, against his cowardly accuser, who has some sort of bizarre vendetta against Philadelphia Runner Track Club.

I think that an appropriate non-DQ penalty would be...

1. The mark stands for OTQ qualification, and their overall placement remains in the race record.

2. The athlete forfeits any prize money, medal/trophy/non-cash award, age-group awards, etc.

This creates consequences for the rules violation while honoring the athlete's effort. No real advantage was gained by the infraction as it was very minor. Any outside pacing, hand-up aid outside of official aid stations, or interference with other athletes, officials, or volunteers would still result in disqualification.

He wasn't getting the same "aid" at the aid station as all of the other participants. That's the issue here. If his coach had just handed him a cup of water, there would be no dq. Instead, the coach handed Ethan a prepared bottle with a specific mix. That's not allowed. If other athletes were allowed prepared bottles at that station, again there would be no dq.

Kudos to Ethan for doing the work, but still a dumb dq for athlete and coach. They should have gotten confirmation from the RD beforehand.

Sport is a rule-based activity. Without rules there's no sport.

Obviously running needs a rule like this. Imagine a major race where most runners have private assistance, it would be a nightmare.

Just checking in here to let people know that I am the coach and the person that handed Ethan his bottle. No one is taking this news harder than I am and I have taken full responsibility. I've apologized to my long time personal friends who were involved in the DQ for putting them in this situation. But just to make sure there isn't confusion, the bottle I handed him, was his official nutrition bottle that was on the official nutrition table. I let my emotions and excitement get the better of me, didn't know the rules and I've been trying to make this right from the moment I learned about this. I am definitely sorry and I will definitely not do something like this ever again.

You dont seem to understand what happened. Philly marathon has separate aid stations for the elite athletes where they can leave their own prepared bottles so all the athletes did have the same aid. His coach just picked up one of those bottles and handed it it to him instead of him picking it up himself.

Jesus. This makes the infraction so meaningless that to have Ethan DQ'd for this is even worse than I thought... what a joke this sport is sometimes. Obviously someone had a vendetta against Ethan b/c to report this is the most ridiculous and petty thing I've heard of in a long time.

Someone start a petition to get him reinstated. Prize money, trophy, etc should be forfeited, but for goodness sake, let the dude run Trials...

Ethan shouldn't be allowed to compete at the Olympic Trials because 2:17 is a SLOW time. We don't need 300 men on the starting line. The standard should be 2:13.

So give him his crappy time and chop the OT field by 67% with a 2:13 standard

I love it when some never-was 2:50 marathoner weighs in with a bogus knee-jerk hot take. This is dumb for countless reasons.