The Jury of Appeals of the IAAF World Championships in Athletics says it has rejected an appeal by Jamaican officials, after 400m hurdler Kaliese Spencer had been disqualified after crossing the line first in her heat earlier today.
Spencer, the defending Diamond League winner in the event, was judged to have carried her trail leg around the second hurdle as opposed to over it, triggering rule 168.7 (a), which notes, "Trailed left/right leg below the horizontal plane of the top of hurdle at the instant of clearance."
Jamaican team officials Trevor 'TC' Campbell (team leader), Maurice Wilson (technical leader) and Michael Clarke (head coach) filed an appeal, which was later dismissed by the Jury of Appeals.
"An incident occurred in Heat 1 of the Women's 400m Hurdles where Jamaican athlete Kaliese SPENCER (bib number 524) who crossed the line in first position but was disqualified under rule 168.7 (trailing leg)," read the report on the incident.
"Video evidence was examined, the Jamaican Team not satisfied, and filed an Appeal to the Jury. The Jury of Appeal met and rejected the Jamaican appeal. The results stands."
There was some degree of confusion as reports had surfaced earlier that the Jury had in fact thrown out the Jamaicans' appeal, while team officials stated that there was in fact no decision and that they were awaiting video evidence.
Campbell told The Gleaner that the management team will be making a statement on the matter soon.