Evidently the folks at Nike thought better of their earlier decision abut determining the winner of the Nike Women's Marathon last Sunday in San Francisco. Yesterday it was reported that race organizers not only decided to award a '2nd' First Place award to Arien O'Connell who ran a sub-3 race - 11 minutes faster than the "official" winner Nora Colligan, but officials have decided to do away altogether with the "elite" runner classification in future Women's Marathons. I can't help but wonder if this controversy was one of the reasons the results were so hard to get following the race. Certainly the hue and cry in all the women's running blogs earlier in the week didn't hurt O'Connell's cause either! Congratulations to Arien for her (officially) recognized win!
Nike-basher that you all know me to be, I feel it's my duty to direct your attention to the scathing article in today's San Francisco Chronicle regarding the incident. Mmmm - maybe the company could have said that O'Connell's Nike+ didn't upload her time correctly.....:-0
Image: San Francisco Chronicle
