Cameraman wanders into middle of 5,000-meter race in Olympic track drama: ‘Their race is ruined’

The men’s 5000-meter heats went off with several hitches on Wednesday and the latest came from a wandering cameraman.

In the second heat of the preliminary rounds as the runners headed into the final four laps of the race, a cameraman emerged, walking across a turn on the purple track and appeared seemingly unaware that he was interrupting an Olympic event.

As the runners drew nearer, he appeared shocked to see them run by and he nearly collided with the Olympians in what could have been a major pile-up.

The cameraman quickly realized his near-damaging error and tried to back away, but many runners had to still swerve around him to avoid colliding. Only one runner fell in the race.

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Several runners furiously gestured towards the cameraman while running by, including Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen, who won the heat, with Ethiopia’s Biniam Mehary and Belgium’s Isaac Kimeli finishing up the top three.

“It’s amateurish,” Ingebrigtsen said after the race, per The Daily Mail . “That should not happen in an Olympics.

“I was just far enough out in front to see that something or the other is happening. He has quite a large camera rig. He realized it quite quickly, but the damage is done. For some, their race is ruined.”

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It wasn’t the only drama in the 5,000-meter heats.

In the earlier heat, Great Britain’s George Mills, who is the son of former Leeds United and Manchester City footballer Danny Mills, got into a heated argument with France’s Hugo Hay after an in-race tumble on the final straight.

Mills, along with several other runners, fell on the final meters and put the blame on Hay.

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He placed 18th after the race-ruining crash while Hays qualified after placing seventh.

“I think it’s pretty clear. I got stepped out on as I was about to kick in the home straight and boom, the French lad took me down,” Mills said.

The two were seen arguing shortly after the race, and when Mills was asked what he said to Hay, he said, “I’m probably not allowed to say.”

“From my perspective that was the perfect qualifier for me, going through first 2k in six minutes,” Mills said. “I was like, ‘Nobody in this field can run away from me at this pace,’ so I was just sitting, waiting, biding my time, gonna kick off the home straight then bang, hit the deck. What can you do?”

Upon review, Mills was awarded a spot in the 5000-meter final, which is set for Saturday at 1:50 p.m. ET.

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