Team GB star issues apology after squaring up to French runner in shocking scenes following on-track incident

The Team GB star who angrily confronted another athlete after a race has apologised for his reaction.

The shocking scenes saw George Mills blame France’s Hugo Hay for the four-man fall in the men's 5,000 metre heats at the Paris Olympics on Wednesday (7 August).

Eventually crossing the finishing line after his opponents, Mills, 25, was seen arguing and making physical contact with the Frenchman, 27, followed by a video review by the referee.

Mills said after the race: “It looks like my path was maybe stopped. Mo Ahmed went down with 800m to go and I just about managed to hurdle him, so I thought I’d got away with one there.

“But then going into the home straight on the last lap, I was tucked in on the inside, where I wanted to be, because I knew some sort of gap would open up. It did and I was ready to put my foot down and all of a sudden, boom, I hit the deck.

“I was ready to go. If we look at the top pace of the race, it was playing into a 1500 metre guy’s hands, so that was my plan. Get around the whole race, sit in and don’t waste any energy, get into the last 100m, doesn’t matter if you are 10th or 12th, you will be able to come past.

“We executed that to the point, and I was ready to execute that last little bit, but that got taken out of my control unfortunately.”

Officials agreed that Mills had been disadvantaged and after an appeal he was advanced to Saturday's final (10 August).

Taking to social media yesterday (7 August), the Team GB star apologised for his behaviour, writing: "I have put my heart and soul into reaching the Olympic Games, and after the race I reacted in the heat of the moment, thinking my chance of an Olympic final had been taken away from me through no fault of my own.

🇬🇧 George Mills was NOT happy with one of his fellow 5000m competitors 😡#Olympics #Paris2024 #BBCOlympics pic.twitter.com/OQ7tODFkpK

— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) August 7, 2024

"I’m glad the officials agreed with me, but I’d still like to apologise for my reaction.

"I now just can’t wait to race in the final on Saturday night.

"Thanks for all of your support."

Meanwhile, Hay said he 'hopes he didn't do anything' that could lead to him being disqualified.

"I'm really surprised. I just hope that I didn't do anything and I will not be disqualified," he said.

"For me, that was nothing.

"Like I said to George, I will watch the images and if I'm the guy that did it, I will apologise.

"For me, I didn't do anything. I just hope that I can go in the final."