With five more laps to go, Brendan Whelan who was leading the race slowed down and abandoned the track in frustration leaving Teiva Izal of French Polynesia running alone to finish the run.Moments earlier, Whelan stared back at Izal and told him to “watch your feet.”
Whelan was less than a meter ahead of Izal who, most of the time ran in pace with the Australian.
In the next lap, Whelan left his lane and slowed it down giving a everybody an impression that he was just trying to take his time a bit.
Then, Izal has gone one lap and Whelan was not speeding up, as grabbed bottle of water, started to cool it down and did not finish the race.
Thirty four-year-old Izal finished the 5,000 meters in 16 minutes and 49.29 seconds.
Whelan said his competitor clipped him four times. He said he stumbled a bit when his foot was clipped in the first 200 meters.
“I warned him,” he said adding that Izal finally frustrated him when he did again two times.
