ATLANTA, GEORGIA, March 01 — Jess McClain didn’t know anything was wrong until a police siren went off by her left ear. Until that point, McClain was enjoying a comfortable lead in the USATF Half-Marathon Championships women’s race and thought she was less than a mile away from victory.
The policeman, McClain said, “cut myself, the lead car and the media cyclists off and told us to turn around.”
They were off course. By a lot. McClain’s heart rate spiked and her heart dropped.
Emma Grace Hurley and Ednah Kurgat, who had been running 2nd and 3rd, also did abrupt U-turns.
Molly Born was so far back (about 150m) that she didn’t see the leaders make the wrong turn. So, when she came down the chute in downtown Atlanta with a time of 69:43, she thought she was 4th.
“I thought they just had the tape out for fun,” said Born, who also won the 2025 U.S. marathon championship. “I didn’t realize until someone told me the situation, like a good 2 minutes after I finished, that I won the race.”
Carrie Ellwood, who had been in 4th place behind the leaders, also took the wrong turn, but corrected quickly to come in second in 69:47. Annie Rodenfels was 3rd (70:12).
By the time McClain, Hurley and Kurgat were back on course, they had run nearly half a mile out of their way. Instead of being virtually assured of placing in the top 3 and qualifying for the World Athletics Road Running Championships in Copenhagen in September, McClain was 9th (71:27), Hurley 12th (71:38) and Kurgat 13th (71:50).
“It’s frustrating… It’s just you’re robbed of multiple things,” said McClain, who also missed out on the $20,000 first prize.
Hurley, who was 2nd last year, said, “You try to get up and finish strong, but after all that emotion goes through your body, it’s really hard to muster a strong finish.”
McClain, however, did close faster from 20K to the finish than Born, 3:19 to 3:21.
The three athletes protested, but were denied. The USATF jury of appeals found that “the course was not adequately marked at the point of misdirection… However, the jury of appeals finds no recourse within the USATF rulebook to alter the results order of finish.”
“We’re cursed,” Hurley said to McClain. She cited McClain’s 4th-place finishes in the 2024 Olympic Trials marathon and 10,000 and in this race last year. With her strong result last year, Hurley believed she’d qualified for the 2025 edition of the World Road Running Championships — only for the event to be canceled.
There was no confusion in the men’s race. Wesley Kiptoo and Hillary Bor separated from the pack immediately. With Kiptoo leading the charge on the hills and Bor on the flats, they built a 36-second gap by 15K.
Kiptoo pulled away to win in 61:15, followed by Bor (61:30) and Ahmed Muhumed (61:51).
The mistake in the women’s race happened prior to the 20K mark as they approached a footbridge. In the men’s race, the convoy of a lead car, two police motorcycles and two broadcast cycles went over the bridge, which usually has bollards prohibiting vehicles.
Unfortunately, the convoy for the women’s race veered left off the course in error before the bridge and McClain and the others followed. When the splits for 20K appeared, Born was first at 76:22 and McClain was 1:46 back in 11th place.
That’s the sort of scenario that causes sleepless nights for race director Rich Kenah, who is CEO of the Atlanta Track Club, and he took full responsibility.
“It is of no use for me to point a finger at drivers, at spotters, at anyone in our lead convoy,” Kenah said. “As the race director, that’s my job to make sure that gets executed the way it’s supposed to be.
“When you are in the heat of competition, yes, it’s your job to know the course, but you are focused on the race itself and you are at some level relying on the leading vehicles around you.”
Kenah said the vehicles were too close to the athletes for them to be able to process what was happening and make the right decision. “I do not fault the athletes,” said Kenah, a former world-class middle distance runner. “I feel for them and I want to make sure they understand that we’re going to do the work and hopefully they’ll come out of this feeling that the track club respected their efforts here today.”
He said the affected runners could be compensated monetarily.
For Hurley, who is from the Atlanta area, she just wanted to make the team for Copenhagen. “I will forfeit all prize money, I won’t even take a single dollar to make the team,” she said. “We at least have a clear split at 15K where there were three of us clear of the field.”
At 15K, Hurley had the lead with Kurgat and McClain a second behind, Ellwood 6 seconds back and Born 22 seconds off the lead.
Before the appeals had been heard, Born said she shouldn’t go to Copenhagen. “I shouldn’t and I’m not going to fight for my spot if they want to fix it,” she said. “It’s just hard… I guess I could give up my spot, but I don’t know how it works. It’s very unfortunate.”
The team will not be officially named until May. USATF said in a statement that it would “review the events from Atlanta carefully.” There is a very precise selection policy. If the top 5 decline, the team could be drawn from the WA world rankings.
Kiptoo won’t have any explaining to do when he gets home. His daughter Natalia, 5, and son Santos, 4, follow his results. “If I don’t win, I go back home, my daughter would be so mad,” he said.
Kiptoo predicted he would win. “If you know your training and you know how you’re feeling, you know what’s coming,” he said. “It’s not a surprise. We’ve been doing a lot of hills the past four weeks and I think I was ready for this more than anybody else.”
And he didn’t take any wrong turns.
USATF HALF-MARATHON MEN’S RESULTS
1. Wesley Kiptoo (HokaNAZE) 61:15 (14:27 [14:27], 14:19 [28:46], 14:40 [43:26], 14:47 [58:13], 3:02); 2. Hillary Bor (Hoka) 61:30; 3. Ahmed Muhumed (HokaNAZE) 61:51; 4. Charles Hicks (Nike) 62:10; 5. Bob Liking (HokaNAZE) 62:21; 6. Aidan Reed (Roots) 62:22; 7. Cole Sprout (Nike) 62:35; 8. Graydon Morris (PumaE) 62:38; 9. Sam Chelanga (Saucony) 62:49; 10. Robert Miranda (HokaAg) 63:01.
USATF HALF-MARATHON WOMEN’S RESULTS
1. Molly Born (PumaE) 69:43 (16:49, 16:20 [33:09], 16:23 [49:32], 16:50 [66:22], 3:21); 2. Carrie Ellwood (MammothTC) 69:47; 3. Annie Rodenfels (Salomon) 70:12; 4. Kasandra Parker (CrownR) 70:47; 5. Annamaria Kostarellis (Asics) 70:57; 6. Biruktayit Degefa (adidas) 71:08; 7. Erika Kemp (Brooks) 71:20; 8. Allie Ostrander (Ois) 71:26;
9. Jess McClain (Brk) 71:27 (led off course by lead vehicle while in 3-woman lead pack c150m in front) (16:48, 16:12 [33:00], 16:11 [49:11], 18:57 [68:08], 3:19); 10. Maggie Montoya (SalomonRoots) 71:27; 11. Rachel Smith (Az) 71:29; 12. Emma Grace Hurley (Ga) 71:38 (among lead trio led off course) (16:49, 16:11 [33:00], 16:11 [49:11], 19:01 [68:12], 3:26); 13. Ednah Kurgat (Co) 71:50 (among lead trio led off course) (16:49, 16:11 [33:00], 16:11 [49:11], 19:01 [68:12], 3:26).
