Yamazaki fails to finish walk after official blunders

OSAKA, Japan, Sept 1 (Reuters) World athletics championships organisers were left red-faced after a Japanese race walker was guided into Nagai stadium towards the finish with one lap remaining in the men's 50km event.

Yuki Yamazaki, who had been bidding for a top-eight finish and an automatic berth in next year's Beijing Olympics, failed to receive an official time when he crossed the line because he was short of the mark.

He was recorded on the official result as DNF, or did not finish.

Officials had mistakenly led the staggering Yamazaki into the stadium, even though he still had one more lap to go.

The error came just a day after the pacesetters in the women's 20km walk had attempted to leave the stadium early amid flag-waving confusion.

''I thought something was strange when I was being led in,'' Yamazaki told reporters.

''But I was delirious and didn't know. I might not have come in the top eight, but I wasn't even given a ranking and it's not like I was disqualified for an illegal mode of progression, so I'm very upset,'' he told Japan's Kyodo news agency.

Athletics' world governing body IAFF general secretary Pierre Weiss said: ''It is regrettable, but these things can happen.'' Australian Nathan Deakes won the race in a time of three hours, 43 minutes and 53 seconds.

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