Australian national record-holder Sinead Diver has pulled out of the Olympic marathon little more than one kilometre into the race.
In a bombshell blow to the Aussie hopes at the most iconic Olympic event on the schedule, Diver stepped off the Paris course less than five minutes into the run.
It’s unclear why Diver pulled out, but fierce questions are now being levelled at her and Athletics Australia, especially in the context of the Olympic qualification process that marred the announcement of the team.
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Four-time Olympian Lisa Weightman was denied selection onto the three-piece team despite clocking the third fastest marathon in the selection period.
Athletics Australia used its discretional power to select Jess Stenson, who had the fourth quickest time, instead of Weightman, which created a major stir within the sport.
As the fastest Australian qualifier, Diver’s position on the team was under the least level of doubt.
But if a potentially race-derailing injury was sustained and known before the race, it begs the question of why Weightman, who was listed as the official emergency, was not called up to replace her.
“If there’s some issue that’s happened in the last couple of days, there’s not much you can do about it. Just get to the start line and go,” Dave Culbert said on Nine.
“But if it’s beyond that, I think the other marathon runners, particularly Lisa Weightman, who would’ve been the next person (in) — and even Izzi Batt-Doyle, who ran on the track here, and ran that fast time in Valencia. She’s here, she ran on the track, and it’s possible that she could have started here and at least given it a crack.
“What do we know, when did we know it? And to be fair, Athletics Australia have got to tell us the answer to those questions — they’re pretty straight-forward.”
Athletics Australia had six athletes from whom to pick their women’s marathon team, of which Batt-Doyle was one, but only the officially listed emergency is allowed to receive a late call-up into the team.
So, even though Batt-Doyle was there in Paris, she would not have been eligible to run in Diver’s place.
“Unfortunately, because we have such depth in this event — it’s a wonderful problem to have, they’re such wonderful athletes — but there will be a lot of questions thrown out after what we’ve just seen with Sinead Diver,” Tamsyn Lewis-Manou said on Nine.
“And you have to feel for athletes like Lisa Weightman at home watching this, because it was heartbreaking for her to not make the team.
“The three athletes who were picked are great athletes in their own right, and I also feel for Sinead Diver in this situation because she’s worked so hard and she earned this spot by being our fastest athlete, there’s no question on that.
“She’s the national record-holder, she finished 10th in Tokyo, so when Sinead Diver tows the line, she does do incredibly (well), so she’ll be heartbroken at the moment.”
Culbert added: “That’s true, Tamsyn, but you can’t take someone’s spot to run a kilometre. I’m sorry.
“If you know that that’s the case, if you’ve known in good enough time … you don’t get picked to start the race, you get picked to try and finish it — that’s the famous story of the marathon.
“That doesn’t always work out, and yesterday didn’t work out for the greatest of all time, (Eliud) Kipchoge; he didn’t start with the idea of not finishing.
“But we’ve seen the USA and Australia (Fiona O’Keefe for America) run no more than 1500 metres of the marathon.”
Gerard Whateley had a number of questions that he said needed answering.
“So, what was the extent of the problem, when was it known, what level of testing went into it, and was there an alternative to what we saw? Those are the open questions,” he said on Nine.
“And they all require answering, and if we’re dodging those questions, then it’s not good enough,” Culbert added, before providing an update from Athletic Australia.
“Cramp on the start-line is all we know at the moment. What happened before then — how long, all of those things — still remain unresolved.”
In a cruel piece of timing, Weightman won the Sunshine Coast half marathon in a lightning time of 70 minutes on the same day that Weightman pulled out.
“What we do know is that Lisa Weightman today on the Sunshine Coast ran 1:10 for a half marathon, so close to PB-shape,” Culbert said.
Lewis-Manour said it was an incredible feat for the 45-year-old.
“She was awesome, today, Lisa Weightman. She won the national title over the half marathon by over three minutes, running it solo. She’s in shape ready to go,” she said.
“No matter what unfolds in this race … there’s going to be a lot said in the community of running back home.”
Culbert concluded: “To be honest, unless we get the right answers, it’s going to (leave) a question mark on what’s been an unbelievable campaign for Australia.”
