Nicholas McEntyre
American sprinter Kenny Bednarek is accusing race officials of “favoritism” over the lane assignments of the Men’s 200m final at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Bednarek, the world-ranked number 2 behind compatriot Noah Lyles, was unhappy with the lane assignment for Thursday’s race as he was placed away from the “preferred positions.”
Bednarek won his semi-final race with a time of 20.00, the second fastest of the final qualifiers,
“Kung Fu Kenny” was originally set to start in lane 4 while Lyles was set to race in lane 5. American Erriyon Knighton and Botswanan runner Letsile Tebogo were placed in lanes 6 and 7, respectively.
The middle lanes 5-8 are considered the preferred positions for the 200m, as the inside and outside lanes have issues with visibility around the bend.
Bednarek, the defending Olympic silver medalist, called out race organizers for the “favoritism” before the medal race.
“Never seen favoritism like this on a global scale,” he said in a post to X.
Bednarek launched a protest about the lane assignments, which forced organizers to reassign the lanes.
He was moved to lane 8 following the protest.
Lyles, Bednarek, Knighton and Tebogo are the top-ranked runners in the event with the latter three all winning their semi-finals on Wednesday.
Tebogo was the fastest out of all three semi-finals, finishing in 19.96, followed by Bednarek (20.00) and Lyles (20.08) while Knighton and Dominican Republic runner Alexander Ogando both ran at 20.09.
Ogando is now running in lane 4 after the officials switched him and Bednarek.
World Athletics officials complete three separate draws to determine the lane assignments in for the 200m finals.
The Men’s 200m final is set to go off at 2:30 p.m. Eastern Time.
