Former Olympic champion Maurice Greene has called for the high school track star disqualified from a state championship for recreating one of his famous celebrations to be reinstated.
Clara Adams, a runner for North Salinas High School in California, was stripped of her 400m state title at the weekend and disqualified from the meet as a whole after she celebrated in a way the governing body deemed ‘disrespectful’.
After finishing second in the preliminary heats, she crossed the line in first to take the gold for her own before running over to her father as he produced a fire extinguisher.
She grabbed the extinguisher from her father and sprayed her shoes with it – as if to say that they were on fire – in a celebration reminiscent of Greene’s after he won the 100-meter dash at the 2004 Home Depot Invitational.
Though despite her father claiming it took place away from her competitors and that she ‘wasn’t disrespecting anyone’, the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) decided the celebration was unsportsmanlike and stripped Adams’ of her championship before throwing her out of the meet.
And Greene – who won two Olympic gold medals in his own career – believes Clara’s disqualification should be overturned if the celebration was performed away from her competitors.
Track star Clara Adams (right) was thrown out of a meet for celebrating with a fire extinguisher
Adams was recreating a celebration made famous by ex-Olympian Maurice Greene (pictured)
‘When I heard, cause it happened, and then people just started calling me ‘This girl who just ran the 400 did your celebration’ I was like huh? What?’ the ex-athlete told KSBW-TV on Monday.
‘If it was away from everyone and not interfering with anyone, I would say reinstate her.’
Adams crossed the line with a time of 52.24 seconds, just one-hundredth slower than the state-leading time she achieved the week prior.
After being disqualified, she was prevented from competing in the 200m event later that day.
‘I don’t know what’s going through my mind right now,’ Clara told the Monterey Herald.
‘I’m disappointed and I feel robbed. I am in shock. They (officials) yelled at me and told me “we’re not letting you on the podium.” They took my moment away from me.’
David, meanwhile, claimed they were ‘on the other side of the wall’ from the track while alleging that the decision to disqualify his black daughter was due to her race.
Greene, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, performed the celebration back in 2004 (pictured)
‘We have protested the decision, I feel it was racially motivated,’ he told the Herald.
Adams’ coach, Alan Green, called it ‘a very unfortunate event’, adding, ‘We are all heartbroken. Clara ran an incredible 400 race and is the fastest 400-meter girl in the state.
‘She was trying to have some fun at the finish line after the 400. It was interpreted as unsportsmanlike.
‘What an incredible season and run. It’s unfortunate.’
