I ran a 400m dash at my track district meet last week and finished with a time of 51.55, which won my heat and placed me 6th overall, which is the last qualifying spot for the regional meet. I was super proud of qualifying since I wasn’t really supposed to have a shot at this meet. However, I'm starting to feel uncertain about whether I truly earned my spot
I think another coach might have protested that I drifted into his runner's lane. His runner finished second in my heat in a time of 51.98. I was lane three and he was lane four. The 7th place runner (from the same school) ran a time of 51.77 in a different heat and did not qualify for regionals since I got the last spot. I wasn’t DQ’d at the meet and no protest, controversy,
talking with officials, or anything was mentioned – I just got my medal and
left feeling good when the meet wrapped up.
The reason I think this is because when I checked the performance list for regionals, that school has a 4x400 relay entered even though they didn’t qualify on time or place (top 3 relays). Also, when I was talking to my coach later last week at practice, he joked that their coach told
him I drifted in his runner’s lane (they’re good friends apparently, I had no idea).
I reviewed the video of the race that my coach took from the stands and couldn’t find any clear evidence that I interfered with the other runner (like contact or disrupting his strides). I did see myself drift a little outside my lane coming around the final turn, but I was several strides
ahead at this point. I’ve probably watched the video 50+ times looking for spots where maybe I impeded him.
Anyways, I can’t help but wonder if their 4x4 entry might be related to a protest or appeal they might’ve filed against my race, even though I wasn’t DQ’ed. I’m not sure how the process with DQ’ing a runner works, especially in championship meets, but now it feels like I just got into regionals because they feel bad for me and didn’t want to DQ me.
It’s all left me feeling conflicted and overall depressed about the situation. I was super proud of my race and qualifying, but now I can’t shake the feeling that my achievement is tainted and I didn’t really earn my spot. It’s pretty much taken all of the pride out of it. This is my first
time qualifying past the district meet, and I know with that time I have no shot at states, but I was still extremely happy about it.
Am I overthinking this, or is this a legitimate concern? I just don’t know how to feel