This was the second qualifier of the Women’s 4x400m relay, held as part of the World Athletics Relays in Guangzhou over the weekend. And it wasn’t just any qualifier, it was a crucial gateway to the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo this September. The stakes were simple: finish in the top three and your team secured its place on the biggest stage of the year. The host nation, China, were also competing in this race, more on that shortly. With all that on the line, you’d expect the cameras to keep their eyes firmly on the front of the race. They didn’t.
Halfway through the second lap Ireland's Rhasidat Adeleke’s was holding onto the lead, but the cameras became locked in on a different battle, not for third place, but for fourth and fifth between China’s Liu and Switzerland’s Husler.
This continued into the third leg. The Zambian runner, Sepiso, was still ahead at that point, holding third. But as Liu closed the gap and overtook Sepiso down the back straight of the third lap, the broadcast made a decision: forget the leaders, this is the only story now.
Yes, Rachel McCann got a decent bit of coverage running down the back straight of third lap, but after that? It was a one-camera show, obsessively focused on the scrap for third between China’s Lian and Switzerland’s Fahr all the way to the finish, punctuated by awkward long shots where the runners were reduced to little more than specks on the screen. At times, it felt less like watching a world-class athletics event and more like squinting through CCTV footage of a running track.
The result? When Sharlene Mawdsley took the baton for the final leg, locked in a showdown with Australia’s Yukich, the director seemed convinced the real story was happening several metres behind them. Mawdsley pulled off a brilliant overtaking manoeuvre to win the race, but you wouldn’t have known it. The cameras only panned to another awkward wide angle shot moments before she crossed the finish line. It was as if she and Yukich were finishing in a different stadium entirely.
Yes, the meet was in China. But if the priority was to cater for a home audience, fine, stick that on a separate feed. The rest of us might have liked to actually see the race being won.
Irish athletics fans were typically quick and merciless in their verdict. The reaction online was as sharp as Mawdsley’s finishing kick.
One Facebook commenter didn’t hold back: “Well done Ireland and please take that producer out to the woodshed. Brutal camera work, just brutal.”
Another summed up the sense of disbelief: “I watched every race over the two days. It was the only race Ireland won and the only race decision makers decided NOT to show the front runners on the home straight, then crossing the finish line.”
And finally, one viewer cut right to the point all in caps: “DIABOLICAL TV DIRECTOR.”
But this wasn’t just a bad broadcast call. It raises an uncomfortable question: is World Athletics willing to sell its soul in the name of “growth markets”?
This isn’t some isolated scheduling quirk. The World Indoors were held in Nanjing this year. This weekend’s World Relays? Guangzhou. And the 2027 World Championships? Beijing. It’s all part of a very deliberate push into China.
Ans here's another uncomfortable question: would this have happened if it were a British athlete battling for World Champs spot in London? Or an American athlete in Eugene? Would it have been as blatant as you saw today? You already know the answer.
Because when the price of growth is losing sight of the sport itself, you have to wonder what’s really crossing the finish line, ambition or integrity?
And after witness that broadcasting fiasco today, it’s hard to say which of those is pulling ahead.