George Mills keeps Olympics dream alive after earning reprieve for 5,000m Paris final

After the men had crossed the finish line, Mills and Hay were seen arguing and making physical contact, Mills pointing furiously at the Frenchman.

Mills, from Harrogate, claimed Hay was responsible for the incident and officials agreed the Briton had been disadvantaged, advancing him to Saturday’s final following a review by the video referee.

Mills, the son of former Leeds and England full-back Danny told the BBC: “I think it’s pretty clear. I got stepped out on as I was about to kick in the home straight and boom, the French lad took me down.”

Asked what he said when he confronted Hay: “I’m probably not allowed to say.”

“From my perspective that was the perfect qualifier for me, going through first 2k in six minutes. I was like, ‘Nobody in this field can run away from me at this pace’, so I was just sitting, waiting, biding my time, gonna kick off the home straight then bang, hit the deck. What can you do?”

Later, Mills added: “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.”

Hay told Discovery+: “There was a big collision. It’s not me. Somebody pushed me.

“Something happened, I turned around and everyone was on the floor so I hope it’s not me. I feel really good.”

Mills had been running alongside the Frenchman in a crowd just before the tumble, their arms appearing to at some point connect, causing Mills to slightly lose his balance.

He recovered, but moments later was tipped to his side, taking Spain’s Thierry Ndikumwenayo and Refugee Olympic Team athlete Dominic Lobalu out with him.

The Netherlands’ Mike Foppen attempted to swerve but he too toppled and joined the pile of fallen bodies.

Ndikumwenayo, Lobalu and Foppen were also awarded places in the final following the review by the video referee, who qualified them due to the level they were disadvantaged.