TOKYO :Olympic 1,500 metres champion Cole Hocker of the United States was disqualified from the event at the world championships on Monday after he barged his way through a crowd on the home straight of his semi-final to earn a qualifying slot.

Hocker was boxed in on the inside with nowhere to go - just as he had been in the Olympic final a year ago. He saw a sliver of a gap open and charged through between two rivals, even turning slightly sideways to go through shoulder-first, and then broke clear to finish second.

"It was tight, I was looking for any kind of gap I could find," Hocker said after the race.

"I tried my best to get through there as cleanly as possible, but I knew everybody was going to be coming from behind really fast.

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