When the public address system called for the fourth, fifth and sixth place runners to report to the winners rostrum after the race, no one understood what was happening, but it soon became clear from the gestures of the race officials that something unusual was happening following the completion of last Sunday’s race.
Having received information from course marshalls the organisers had seemingly disqualified the first three home. It appears that the Ethiopian trio had taken a wrong turn at Km 7 and despite being told of their mistake by members of the Civil Protection they kept on running, completely oblivious of their error.
Once they had completed the course and after reviewing videos of the race, the organisers were forced to disqualify the Ethiopians, in an action that will go down in the history of the Santa Fe test. The Moroccan Hassane Ahouchar, who finished in fourth position, was declared the winner of the race after the costly mistake of the African runners.
