INCHEON, September 28 – Teenage steeplechaser Ruth Jebet had her Asian Games gold medal restored on appeal Sunday as dominant China passed 100 wins with a week’s competition still to go.
Kenya-born Jebet, 17, was left in tears when she was stripped of her big victory late on Saturday as she waited at the podium to receive her gold medal.
But after late-night wrangling the Bahraini, who was disqualified for stepping inside the track during her Games record run, was awarded gold after all.
“The jury reviewed all of the protests by the three Olympic committees and they confirmed that there was no violation of the rules and the gold medal will be given again to Bahrain runner Ruth Jebet,” the Olympic Council of Asia’s (OCA) Games director Haidar Farman told AFP.
China’s Li Zhenzhu came second and Lalita Babar of India and their teams had also lodged protests.
Bahrain Olympic Committee secretary-general Abdulrahman Askar said disqualifying Jebet during the victory ceremony was an “injustice” to the athlete.
“How can they withdraw the medal during the ceremony? It is the first time in my life that I have seen such an incident,” he said.
The incident overshadowed the start of the athletics competition, which resumed on Sunday with Wang Zhen breaking the men’s 20km race walk Games record to take gold for China.
