A collision during the men’s 5,000m race at the Stade de France on Wednesday resulted in chaos in the men’s race when British runner George Mills got into a heated argument with a French rival.
Mills, 25, the son of former Leeds United and Manchester City right-back Danny Mills, crashed on the final lap along with several others and claimed France’s Hugo Hay was at fault.
“I think it’s pretty clear, I tried to kick in the home straight and got stamped on and then – boom – got knocked down by a lad from France,” Mills, who placed 18th, told the BBC. According to The Guardian:.
Mills and Hay, who finished the race in seventh place and qualified for this weekend’s final, collided after qualifying and were “seen arguing and making physical contact”, The Guardian reported.
Mills said he was “probably not allowed to talk” about the details of that exchange, but said he would receive an encouraging update about his future participation in the Paris Olympics.
After a video review, the judges advanced Mills to Saturday’s final.
2024 Paris Olympics
The Refugee Olympic Team’s Mike Foppen of the Netherlands, Thierry Ndikumwenayo and Dominic Lokinyomo Lobalu of Spain all fell but still qualified for the final.
Before learning of her fate in the finals, Mills called the tournament “the perfect qualifier for me.”
“From my perspective, doing the first two kilometres in six minutes was a perfect qualifying run. I thought: ‘At this pace no one in this field can get away from me’ so I just sat back, waited, bought some time, kicked off in the home straight and boom, I was down. There was nothing I could do,” he told The Guardian.
Haye, meanwhile, claimed someone “pushed” him during the commotion during the race.
“There was a big collision. It wasn’t me. Someone pushed me,” he said. According to the Irish Independent“Something happened, I turned around and everyone was on the floor, so I hope it wasn’t me. I feel really good.”
