HISTORIC MISTAKE AT THE PANAMERICAN GAMES OF SANTIAGO 2023
No doubt, never before has a similar event been seen in an international competition: Today the athletes who participated in the women's walk at the Panamerican Games of Santiago 2023 finished the race before the 20 kilometers.
According to the organizers, this is due to a bad measurement of the route. The route was supposed to be one kilometer long and the athletes were supposed to walk twenty laps around it. They fulfilled their role, but the route was not one kilometer long, but less.
KIMBERLY GARCÍA
The error in the measurement of the route resulted in all the competitors finishing the race with unprecedented times, so much so that if the times of today's race were respected, the 15 athletes would have achieved the minimum mark for the Paris 2024 Olympics.
Despite the inconvenience, the winner of the competition, our champion, Kimberly García, keeps her gold medal, the Ecuadorian Glenda Morejón keeps the silver and the Peruvian Evelyn Inga remains with the bronze. But the times will not be homologated nor officially validated, so they do not count towards the ranking.
CONFIRMED MISTAKE
In an official statement, the organization of the Panamerican Games Santiago 2023 regrets what happened and points out that "due to a problem of measurement, exclusive responsibility of the Pan American Athletics Association (PAAA), the times obtained in this event are annulled".