Confusion surrounded the finish of Tyler Smith’s 5,000 metres race at the Carifta Games in Grenada last weekend, where one of the three competitors initially listed as a “did not finish” actually won the race.

One website www.cariftagames2016grenada.com listed Smith as a DNF along with Benjamin Najman of Bahamas and Grenadian Sherlon Mitchell after a miscounting of laps.

However, amended results on another website, www.cfpitiming.com shows Najman as the winner of the race in 15min 24.25sec while Smith placed fifth in 16:07.35, a personal best for the Bermudian in his first Carifta appearance.

“I saw when we came through at 3,000 metres that we had five laps to go, the time was somewhere between 9:10 and 9:20 which was a good 3,000 metres pace,” Smith said.

“After that time the race broke apart, but what I think happened is when the leader lapped an athlete they were still counting the lapped athlete’s laps and not the leader’s laps. By the time I came by with, what was then 1,600 metres to go, it still said I had five laps to go which I knew was wrong by looking at the time and knowing the pace we were going.

“The Bahamian finished and stopped and the two Jamaicans continued. The Guyanese guy who came fourth continued but I stopped as well because I knew the race was finished. I believe somebody talked to the officials to tell them they messed up the counting.

“That was my first track meet outside of Bermuda so I haven’t really had that much experience with stuff like that. It made it interesting, kind of had me a little bit scared, I wasn’t sure if I should keep on running just in case.

“After I took a second to look at the time I knew I was finished. No official came up to me to say I had another lap, they were ringing the bell as I finished so I just walked off. Maybe they thought I was pulling out of the race or something. It was all resolved in the end.”

The revived results showed Najman winning the race with Shane Buchanan and Garfield Gordon, both of Jamaica, taking the silver and bronze with times of 15:32.25 and 15:41.43, respectively.

Odwin Tudor of Guyana finished four seconds ahead of Smith. Sherlon Mitchell of Grenada remained as the only runner of the ten competitors who did not finish.

“It took a while for the results to be verified and the Bahamian went back on to celebrate his victory and when he did that I knew I was OK,” Smith said.

“The competition in the distance events looked to have got stronger, the girls and boys 3,000 they had a lot more competitors than in the past.

“In my race the times were quicker than in the previous couple of years.

“I had wanted to win a medal but the competition seemed to be a lot deeper than in years previous. I’m still happy with my personal best. Hopefully I’ll go back next year and do better.”