The organizers of the Birell 10k Night Race Prague 2026 are issuing an official statement on the incident at the final stretch of Saturday’s race, during which the leading runner, Victor Kipruto Kiprono, made a wrong turn just before the finish (straight) line, or corridor.
What happened on the course
At top-level running events, official lead vehicles carrying timing clocks, TV cameras, or photographers, moves ahead of the runners. For safety and technical reasons, all support vehicles leave the race course via designated exit ramps several dozen meters before the finish gate. At this moment, the leading Kenyan, Victor Kipruto Kiprono, mistakenly followed one of the race’s support vehicles off the course. Before he corrected his mistake and returned to the track, he dropped to third place.
Jana Moberly, Elite Athletes Coordinator at RunCzech, commented on the situation: “We spoke with Victor right after the race. Naturally, he was upset, but he also admitted his own mistake, where he saw the gate, but as he was illuminated by the TV car, he ran automatically behind it,” she stated. “On behalf of RunCzech, we apologized to him and promised to address the situation so that it does not happen again in the future. Although Victor lost the victory, he demonstrated great quality, and we will be glad to see him at our upcoming races.”
Carlo Capalbo, president of the RunCzech organizing committee, also came to personally apologize the Kenyan runner after the race. Victor Kiproto Kipruno accepted his apology and promised to return to Prague next year to win.
Organizer’s statement
“Elite runners perform at the absolute limits of human ability, and we strive to provide them with 100% service and clear navigation. However, as he entered the finish straight, at a critical moment the runner got too close to the TV vehicle, which caused him not to realize, that at the given second the vehicle was leaving the course. Even though the vehicle followed standard exit protocol, we realize that a confusing situation arose for the runner, to which we were unable to react in a split second and prevent him from leaving the course. We sincerely apologize to Victor Kipruto Kiprono for this complication,” said Jiří Nečásek, Communications Director at RunCzech.
According to World Athletics Technical Rules (Rule TR 55 for road races), every athlete is personally responsible for completing the full designated and marked course. Although we regret the situation, the official race results must strictly reflect the approved course and the order in which the runners crossed the finish line. From a legislative and athletic standpoint, Rodrigue Kwizera remains the winner of the Birell 10k Night Race Prague 2026.
“All elite athletes and their managers receive complete technical documents before the start and familiarize themselves in detail with the race course, including the finish corridor, during the technical briefing. We regret all the more that this unfortunate situation occurred amidst final exhaustion and a fast sprint,” adds Jiří Nečásek and also confirmed that the Kenyan runner will receive prize money as if he had actually won the race.
Measures for the future
The RunCzech organizing team immediately initiated a review of the organization of support vehicles for upcoming events. For future races, we will focus even more on better measures around exit zones for support vehicles and other critical points.
We thank all spectators for the fantastic atmosphere and the athletes for their performances.
