Just when we thought we were going to get through a major track and field championships at the National Stadium and go home happy, with less than half hour to go and just two races left, the bubble burst, and once again we have a major incident that spoiled what was a good event.

On Sunday’s final day of the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA) Supreme Ventures National Championships to help select teams for several events including the IAAF World Championships in Doha, Danielle Williams, the 2015 IAAF World Champion in the 100m hurdles, was disqualified for a false start.

She, however, refused to leave the track resulting in a lengthy delay, and when the race was eventually restarted, without her, it was recalled again, except this time a number of the runners did not hear the recall gun and continued running.

The event was eventually voided and a meeting was scheduled for Monday, from which a decision is expected to be announced.

It was the first National Championships without the long shadow of Usain Bolt in more than a decade, the one we hoped would ‘give birth’ to the new set of world beaters like Briana Williams, Janeek Brown and Orlando Bennett, as well as rekindle the fire in some, like shock women’s 400m hurdles champion Rushell Clayton and Yohan Blake, who seemed to be in his best form in years.

But we left talking about an athlete who after false starting, refused to leave the track in a timely manner and in effect wrecked the Championships for seven others, including her own sister.

It’s easy for me to say however, because I am not the one who worked hard for the last 12 months or more, who put in the hard work and is ready to claim a place in the team to Doha, Qatar.

With invitations to lucrative meets hinging on the outcome of the final, as well as going into next year’s Olympic year, there was a lot at stake on Sunday and I can understand the initial disbelief and shock at being disqualified.

We were angry with Linford Christie in 1996 in Atlanta and we were also angry with Mike Rogers in France in 2003, and we have a right to be upset with what happened on Sunday as well.

I was upset on Sunday, at the officials. We have had way too many false start ‘incidents’ at our major championships, and while some were conveniently overlooked, others were not.

When we calmed down, however, and look at the facts, and IAAF rules, the JAAA officials did nothing wrong, and acted in accordance with the IAAF rules under which the championships were conducted.

The action of one person negatively affected seven others who worked just as hard, but were denied through no fault of their own.

But the organisers cannot go unscathed either, repeatedly marching to the lane and holding up a red card in the face of an already angry athlete serves no purpose.

They had seven others to think about, as well as getting the championships to move on in a timely manner with the eight finalists in the men’s hurdles race, which was held up.

Some have suggested removing the starting blocks from the lane as an option, or having the athlete escorted from the track, so the event can go on.