The motorbike rider who cost Dennis Mbelenzi victory in the Hamilton Princess and Gosling’s Rum to the Beach race on Sunday says race organisers should share some of the blame for the distance runner taking the wrong course and getting lost.

Mbelenzi was well clear of the field with the race in safe keeping but was denied his moment of glory after following the rider, who had decided to assist the runner but went the wrong way at the junction of Lighthouse Hill and the Middle Road entrance to Fairmont Southampton Hotel.

The error resulted in Mbelenzi slipping from first position to 47th as he spent more than 15 minutes attempting to find his way back to the correct route.

Willis Dill, the rider of the motorbike, met with the runner yesterday to apologise but is adamant that Mid Atlantic Athletic Club, the organisers of the race, should also be held accountable for the unfortunate incident.

“I think they should share some of the responsibility for him going the wrong way,” Dill told The Royal Gazette.

“I say that simply because there were no marshals at the most critical point of the race, which was at the junction to Middle Road, Lighthouse Hill and Southampton Princess gate.

“It is their responsibility to ensure that people go the right way. In critical places they should‘ve had people in place and there wasn’t.

“When I went over to the finish line and spoke to a lady about it, all she could tell me is that Dennis had run in the race before but not on this particular course. For Mid Atlantic Athletic Club to say that Dennis knows the course, that’s just a poor excuse. He told me that even if I wasn’t there he would’ve still turned and went up the hill.”

Dill, who was not a volunteer for the race, said he stumbled across the contest while riding along Front Street on Sunday morning and decided to offer protection to the leader.

“I saw all these people coming down Burnaby Hill and I decided to check it out,” he said.

“I followed them down East Broadway and I left all the people that were behind Dennis to see who was in front. I didn’t know him, so I thought he was a foreign guy coming here to acclimatise for Race Weekend because a lot of people come here the week before and run this particular race to acclimatise themselves.

“I looked around and wondered where the lead vehicle was or if anybody from the organisers was showing this guy where to go. So I went a little way in front of him, guiding him and a couple of people almost drove out in front of him. I was stopping traffic so that he could go by.”

All seemed to be going well until the closing stages of the race when Dill and Mbelenzi veered off course.

“We got all the way to the top of the hill at Southampton Princess before we realised that we had gone the wrong way,” Dill said.

“There was nothing but barriers, which you can’t get through. When I got up there and saw it, I went back down to Dennis and told him there was no way through but he just kept running up the hill and saying ‘what should I do?’

“When I talked to him this morning he said he jumped up on the wall, around the barriers and went down the hill and through the tunnel the way they used to but it was a dead end.

“After running around where he used to go and finish the race, he went back the way he came and that’s when he saw people going up Lighthouse Hill and ended up finishing 47th.”

Dill said apologising to Mbelenzi was the “right thing to do” especially since it is the second time the athlete has been denied victory in a local race under unfortunate circumstances.

He was the first across the line in the 2023 Bermuda Half-Marathon Derby but as a non-resident was prevented from being recognised as the official race winner or receiving prize money, with that honour instead going to Bermudian Lamont Marshall.

“I felt bad because I felt I cost the guy’s race,” Dill said. “He was following me, so I felt compelled to go to the guy and apologise for leading him astray.

“He had no ill feelings and held nothing against me or the race organisers. He may not hold against them but I do because there should have been a lead bike. As a Bermudian I felt I had to go and apologise to the guy and have a conversation with him, so I went to his job.

“Once I found out who he was I went back to the May 24 incident and I’m thinking this is the guy’s second incident in Bermuda, where in my words he’s been hard done by and I felt bad.

“I was wondering what he is thinking about us as Bermudians because this is his second mishap in road running in Bermuda. I felt it was rough on this guy so apologising is just the right thing to do.”

The Royal Gazette has reached out to Mid Atlantic Athletic Club but received no reply by the time of publication.