IT was the most unexpected red card of the afternoon.
And it allowed a 16-year-old Scot called Cameron Tindle to return to Berwick Academy tomorrow morning telling all his classmates he had just taken the scalp of a world champion.
Richard Kilty, the Teessider who had run all the way to an unlikely 60m world championship gold in Sopot last year, was an overwhelming favourite in his favoured event in the Sainsbury's Glasgow International Match at the Emirates Arena yesterday.
To all intents and purposes, his teenage Scottish opponent, born in Borders General Hospital to two English parents, had already won his race just to be on the start line alongside him. His qualification had arrived with a storming run against more experienced competitors at last week's National Open. But Kilty's first race of the season stopped before it got started.
After an eternity in the blocks, and one faulty start, denoted by the award of a green card, Kilty twitched and the starters were left with little option. He was disqualified but Tindle held his nerve to finish third in a personal best of 6.92secs, 0.23sec behind eventual winner Emmanuel Biron of France. You could say the teenager who is sitting his GCSEs had passed his test with flying colours.
"I'm going back to school on Monday in Berwick," said Tindle. "But I won't be boasting about beating the world champion! He was a bit unlucky to get disqualified. It was great just sitting in with him. I would have liked to have raced against him. But I don't really tend to get distracted by things like a false start."
Kilty, who tore a hamstring and didn't finish the last time he competed in Glasgow, went off into the night cursing the hand which officialdom had dealt him. "I think it was a twitch rather than a false start," said Kilty. "I would have won the race by two metres - an easy victory even if I'd had a bad race. I've seen starts like that and people have got away with them over the last year or so."
Amid some late drama and confusion, Germany eventually took the team honours in this match, but not until the French 4x400m team had been disqualified in the final event of the afternoon. Scotland trailed in fourth on 35 points, behind the Germans' 50, and the 49 racked up by Great Britain & Northern Ireland, and France. This was a points tally five less than recorded in this match 12 months previously, which was Scotland's first appearance as a separate nation, but that was hardly a disgrace considering last year's winners Chris O'Hare and Laura Muir had prioritised quicker races elsewhere, as had Lynsey Sharp, who 12 months back was tearfully awarded her 2012 European gold medal here.
The BBC had declined the opportunity to screen the event, but an encouraging crowd in excess of 4000 clearly still had the athletics bug, and in Jamie Bowie, the sole Scottish winner of the day, they had an authentic home success story to cheer. The 25-year-old from Edinburgh emerged strongest in a death struggle down the home straight against his rival and fellow world indoor 4x400m relay silver medallist Conrad Williams.
This was mano a mano, with Williams the captain of the GB&NI team and Bowie the talisman for the Scots, even if he had been deprived the ceremonial privilege of being named leader. The two men clashed elbows on the final bend as Williams sought to hold his position, before Bowie took the long way round to take Williams' scalp for the first time in a time of 47.38secs. It maybe just proved a point to the selectors who dropped him from the relay squad and removed funding.
"It was a bit rough and ready, but that's indoor racing," said Bowie last night. "On the back straight, I thought, 'Damn it, I really need to find that line', then I got cut off. But the crowd really spurred me on in the last 50 metres. To win against Conrad is pretty special - all the more special because I'd never beaten him before and he's the Great Britain team captain."
Elsewhere, a fine run from Jo Moultrie saw her finish third behind the other headline act of the GB&NI team, Jessica Judd, who ran a PB of 4.14.53 in the 1500m.
Both Scottish relay teams finished second behind the GB&NI squads, Ray Bobrownicki's 2.21m gave him second behind Chris Kandu in the high jump, while there were other Scottish PBs in the pole vault from Samuel Adams and Myles Edwards in the 1500m.
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