Gletty remained in the starting block and got away hopelessly late and ran to the finish in 15.30. Forty minutes later after a successful protest, Gletty ran the race all by himself and set a personal best with 13.88.
He improved by 176 points and went from fourth to first place after six events. Without having been allowed to run again, Gletty had finished fifth in the competition.
Athletics EC
Skotheim would have done the same thing as Gletty if he had ended up in the same situation and notes that there have been many strange trips around several starts, measurements and washing up.
– There are rules I don’t know so it’s up to the referee to decide if he should get an extra opportunity or not, says Skotheim to NRK who ran in the same heat.
“Problem with the speaker”
It was the French team management that filed the protest.
– He was on track nine and there was a problem with the speaker. The sound was not loud enough. There was only a little noise and he didn’t hear the starting shot. We asked to run the race again and they said okay, says French leader Romain Barras.
Johannes Erm won the gold, the second EC decathlon gold for Estonia after Erki Nools in 1998.
– It’s been two fantastic days and I can’t remember when I was this happy, says Erm to the European Athletics Federation.