What went wrong in the women’s competition at the chaotic USATF half marathon championship?
What went wrong in the women’s competition at the chaotic USATF half marathon championship?
Kevin Dotson, CNNWed, March 4, 2026 at 10:59 AM UTC
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Competitors in the 2025 USATF Half-Marathon Championships on March 2, 2025 in Atlanta, Georgia. - Kimey Heard Jr./Imagn/Reuters
North Carolina runner Molly Born won the USA Track & Field (USATF) women’s half marathon championship by a slim margin of just over four seconds on Sunday in Atlanta – but the result is only half the story.
To say Born’s win was mired in controversy would be an understatement. That’s because the four runners that were outpacing the rest of the pack were led off the course by the guide vehicle with just over a mile remaining in the 13.1-mile race.
The quartet ran about 1 kilometer (roughly 0.62 miles) extra, according to one of the runners. By the time the mistake was realized and the wayward runners were led back onto the race course, they had been overtaken by rest of the field. The trio that was set to make the podium ended up finishing in ninth, 12th and 13th place.
The affected runners filed a protest of the results and were denied. They then appealed that decision to USATF.
In a statement, the national track and field governing body determined that the course violated USATF rules and was not adequately marked, which contributed to the misdirection. However, USATF said there is no recourse in the rule book to alter the finishing order of the race.
The protested results would stand, to the satisfaction of seemingly no one, not even the race winner. Born said in an interview after the race, “I don’t really feel like the US champion.”
Molly Born – seen here competing in the Boston Half on November 9, 2025 – finished first in Sunday's controversial race. - Erica Denhoff/Icon Sportswire/AP
Jess McClain, who was in the lead before taking the wrong turn, said on Instagram, “I’m going try my hardest to walk away from this weekend remembering the joy I felt in those moments where I thought I was on my way to becoming a National Champion & finally make Team USA outright.”
A statement released by the Atlanta Track Club on Tuesday shed some light on the bizarre chain of events that led to the contentious finish.
What exactly went wrong?
The race began to go off the rails when the frontrunners were still about 13 unlucky minutes away from the fateful intersection.
Police officers who were working to direct traffic for the race received a call of an officer down about a block off the race course roughly 300 feet from the location of the misdirection. Race organizers say that a motorcycle officer working the race was struck by a vehicle around 8:05 a.m. ET. The officer was treated at a local hospital and released later that day.
Two minutes later, nearby officers working the race responded to the call of an officer down, leaving “a number of key race intersections, including the one where the wrong turn occurred, unattended,” according to Atlanta Track Club.
The officer who left the affected intersection had not yet placed the traffic cones to block the intersection and mark the race course.
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At 8:10 a.m., the lead male athletes of the race “successfully navigate” the intersection in question with a race-assigned escort.
Jessica McClain – seen here competing in the women's marathon at the 2025 World Athletics Championships on September 14, 2025 in Tokyo, Japan – was the race leader when the wrong turn occurred. - Emilee Chinn/Getty Images AsiaPac/Getty Images
Another police officer – who was not assigned to work the race and wasn’t equipped to prevent the wrong turn, according to race organizers – arrived five minutes later at 8:15 a.m. to facilitate the flow of first responder vehicles through the intersection to reach the officer down.
Atlanta Track Club says the driver of the lead vehicle knew the planned route, but upon arrival at the intersection at 8:20 a.m. ET, the traffic cones had not been set to mark the race course, so they followed a police motorcycle off course, believing that the race had been rerouted.
Twenty five seconds after the four runners had made the wrong turn, the original officer assigned to work the intersection returned. Motorcycle police eventually caught up to the misdirected athletes and turned them around.
Meanwhile, additional race-assigned police officers arrived at the intersection at 8:22 a.m. and directed all subsequent runners along the correct route.
“We regret that Jess McClain, Emma Grace Hurley and Ednah Kurgat were impacted by this incident and were unable to be recognized as the top three finishers reflective of their performance on the course,” Atlanta Track Club said in its Tuesday statement.
“Atlanta Track Club has offered to match the prize money as follows: McClain to receive the equivalent of first-place prize money. Hurley and Kurgat will split the combined total of second- and- third-place prize money because they were shoulder-to-shoulder when they left the race course.”
But there was more than just prize money at stake on Sunday.
The race was a qualification event for the world championships later this year, with the top three finishers slated to represent the US in Copenhagen, Denmark, in September.
USATF says it will review the situation further before selecting the runners who will compete in Denmark.
“That team is not officially selected until May,” the governing body said.
“USATF will review the events from Atlanta carefully. While we understand athletes are eager to resolve this issue expeditiously, our process will ensure an ultimate decision is in the best interest of all the athletes involved.”
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