The men’s 10,000 metres final at the Gateway Games 2024 descended into farce on Saturday evening as a power outage plunged the MKO Abiola Stadium in Abeokuta into darkness, forcing athletes to complete the final laps of the race by mobile phone torchlight and ambulance headlamps.
With the last event of the day in progress, the floodlights abruptly failed, leaving competitors to run the final seven laps of the race in near-invisible conditions.
Power was only restored after the race concluded — though further outages were reported across the venue later in the evening.
Despite the chaotic scenes, it was Plateau State’s Francis James who crossed the finish line first, clocking 30:36.50 to claim the gold medal.
CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE ATHLETIC NG WHATSAPP CHANNEL NOW!
However, the long-distance runner lamented what he described as “dangerous and demoralising” conditions, as the blackout struck with eight laps to go.
“I thank God I was able to finish and win, but it wasn’t easy at all,” James told PUNCH Sports Extra.
“Around the 10km mark, about 10 laps to go, I felt I could win it, but then everything went dark. It was hard to see who was in front or behind. I had to rely on memory and instinct.”
The outage, which lasted around 20 minutes, left the stadium in complete darkness. In the absence of contingency lighting, spectators, coaches, and medical personnel improvised using mobile phone flashlights and the headlights of a medical ambulance to provide just enough illumination for the athletes to finish.
Gateway Games 2024 10,000m final at the MKO Abiola Stadium. Photo Credit: X
James, who believes he was on course for a much faster time, added, “If not for the blackout, I believe I would have run faster, maybe around 28 or 29 minutes.
READ MORE: gateway-games-2024-enugu-shines-in-para-athletics-as-silver-medal-haul-grows
Running in the dark with no clear vision of the lane or fellow runners was very risky. It’s not how a national event should be run.”
The embarrassing lapse in organisation capped a day to forget for the festival, coming on the heels of the shock disqualification of sprint favourite Favour Ashe in the men’s 100m final earlier in the day.
Despite the presence of high-ranking officials and a sizeable crowd, no immediate explanation was given for the floodlight failure.
Representatives from the Athletics Federation of Nigeria said they had yet to receive a formal briefing from the Local Organising Committee (LOC) or stadium management regarding the incident.
