Dallas18 wrote:
No money, and the woman who came in second said she didn't want Chandler Self DQ'ed
I think both the winner and the second place finisher have been placed in a very difficult positions It's undeniable that the winner received help that is not allowed, but she did not request that help and it is not reasonable to expect her, in the condition she was in, to fight off someone trying to help her. The second place finisher would be technically correct to ask that the rules be followed and the winner be DQ'd, but many would call her selfish if she did so. The only saving grace is that the finish was apparently not close and the winner probably would have managed to cross the line first without any help.
Ages ago, I was the second-place finisher involved in a partly similar scenario. I and another woman were going after OTQ's at a smallish marathon. The other woman went out aggressively and was way ahead at 20 miles, but then started to struggle. She fell several times in the final quarter-mile and people were trying to help her but the race director, knowing that the OTQ was at stake, shooed them all away. The winner crawled across the line in 2:44:57, making the OTQ by 3 seconds. I ran across the line 19 seconds behind her. I was disappointed to miss the win and the OTQ, but I had done my best and she was the better runner that day, and all I could say was congratulations. I bet I would have felt differently if she had received help to finish.