Counting blunder costs UK athlete personal best time in race before London Olympics

Jessica Ennis of Britain (center) competes against Dawn Harper of the U.S. (right) and Danielle Carruthers of the U.S. (left) during the womens 100m hurdles during the Great City games in Manchester north-west England on May 20, 2012.

/ ANDREW YATES/AFP/GettyImages

(CBS/AP) Olympic heptathlete Jessica Ennis ran the race of her life in the 100 meter hurdles on Sunday at the Great City Games in Manchester. The Briton clocked 12.75 seconds (her personal best time) into a headwind to beat Olympic champion Dawn Harper and world silver medalist Danielle Carruthers.

Except for one thing: only nine hurdles had been set up instead of the regulation 10, thereby nullifying the race.

"I feel let down," the 26-year-old Ennis said, according to the Guardian. "I felt like it was a good race, I was running well, I was obviously coming through at the end, stick another hurdle on there it would have been the same outcome but, argh, I'm so annoyed. What can I say?"

In a statement organizers said: "We would like to apologize for this unacceptable incident."

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As for Ennis, she joked that she would count the hurdles at her next competition in Austria. But for now, the former world heptathlon champ is still astounded by the blunder.

"It's a great event but that's a massive, massive mess-up," said Ennis, who has been voted U.K. Women's Athlete of the Year three times by the British Athletic Writers' Association. "As an athlete you expect that everything should be set up properly and there should be no mistakes like that so I am pretty disappointed with that."

[afriskyr]

That is unfortunate that the setup was not checked and double checked. In athletic events like this, it seems like a no brainer that things need to be checked.

[yelobrikroad]

ROFL. Imbeciles! To the dungeon!

[yelobrikroad]

ROFL. Imbeciles! To the dungeon!

[joeovercoat]

Nine hurdles, not ten...so the race does not count and they run it again...what's the issue? Personally, my personal best for the hurdles is when there are no hurdles at all, for this particular person.

[an5200]

It's part of the 10% austerity plan we have over here, Manchester City Council are doing their bit! LOL

[an5200]

Now let me guess, the event was no doubt arranged by Manchester City Council.... Another prime example why we should shrink down the size of public bodies when they can't even arrange a party in a brewery... (swapped words over there!!!)

But Jessica , you're still my No1!!! Get us Gold!!!!

[MancunianMan]

It was organised by a private company. Thank you for your lazy and incorrect dig at the council. Please now deride the private sector for their failures.

[John782011]

caljack most hurdlers do not walk the entire length of the race before an event. It is reasonable to assume that the track organizers are adept enough to put out the corret number of hurdles, especially when there are marks on the tracks to indicate where the hurdles should go.

[caljack430]

While I understand that you have other things on your mind when preparing to start a race... I feel like as a professional athlete who should be incredibly experienced in this race, they should have been paying a bit more attention and SOMEONE should have noticed that a hurdle was missing.