Fury as high school track star is disqualified by strict judge... costing his whole team a state championship

UK Daily Mail ^ | 2:39 EDT, 18 May 2026 | DANIEL MATTHEWS,

[dennisw]

A North Carolina high school was left heartbroken after a brutal judging decision cost their athletes a state championship.

Mallard Creek won the boys' 4x400m relay to secure the title, only for Nyan Brown - who ran the anchor leg - to be disqualified for celebrating too early.

During the meet in Greensboro, Brown cruised down the home straight well clear of his rivals. Just a few meters from the line, he held up five fingers.

It signaled his team's fifth championship but that title was quickly ripped away from Brown and Mallard Creek after an official punished him for unsportsmanlike conduct.

That left Mallard Creek two points behind rivals Jordan High. Victory in the 4x400m - the final event of the meet - would have secured Brown and Co 10 points.

Instead, they ended up with zero. Mallard Creek reportedly launched a protest at the event, only for the call to be upheld.

'Nyan is devastated,' Bryant Bailey, the Mallard Creek athletic director, told the Charlotte Observer.

'He’s very upset, as are we. With the state championship on the line, they decided to make that call and DQ him.

'And if you go back and look at other photos and videos throughout the week, you can see multiple instances of kids celebrating way, way harder while coming across the line than what I think our young man did.

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TOPICS: Sports
KEYWORDS: cryitoff; cryitoffnyan; furysaddened; furyspeople; itsthembooboo; lolfury; lolfurylol; teens; teenthugs

[Jamestown1630]

It does sound as if the judge was pressing his authority overmuch. (The article speaks of ‘officials’, but none are named.)

[xone]

The guys behind probably couldn’t see it anyway. Very lame decision.

[dfwgator]

[wrcase]

I think that some on here won’t be happy unless robots replace the athletes. God forbid a kid show an expression of joy.

[dfwgator]

Exactly. It’s not as if it was a throat-slash gesture or anything like that.

[Wuli]

It is a mistake to label very obvious “celebration” “unsportsmanlike”.

One comes to mind is memories of more than one PGA golfer finishing their last hole on the last day of a four day tournament with a number of strokes ahead of any other golfer, but with a couple more golfers yet to finish their last round. When it is clear there is no way for the remaining golfers to catch up with the existing top scorer, no one would think any moment of celebratory body language by that leader was “unsportsmanlike”.

Sometimes these decisions cannot be left to single judges and even with multiple judges need to include the team captains at the meet. It should always come from a discussion not a one-man ruling. For instance, was the opposing team “offended”???

[wrcase]

Completely arbitrary decision. Maybe the official has a vested interest in the result of this race. Perhaps a family member attends the losing school. Reminds me of a time when a sports show was interviewing a lineman who scored a touchdown and celebrated. Some bitter guy called and gave the whole “act like you’ve been there before” tirade. The player replied that he’d been a lineman his whole football life and had never scored a touchdown in an official game in his life. Then he said, “I’ve never been there before.”

[dfwgator]

Imagine what they would have done to Chay-Chay Rodrigueeze.....

[missnry]

Maybe if he would have kept his hand pointed forward instead of giving the five to his competitors… I guess you could consider that taunting his fellow athletes.

[wrcase]

In all fairness he played for the Lions, so he didn’t have much experience winning championships.

[OldHarbor]

They were triggered by 5 fingers ?

It’s not as though he got in their face, calling them losers.

They sound too fragile to compete in anything.

[Wuli]

Tiger - 1

at 9:0 min mark

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldsAXXuVSSc&t=4s

Tiger - 2

at 4:17 mark

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJGjNsEiqbU

and more importantly

famous PGA celebratory wins

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5fvf9MN80I

[dfwgator]

In all fairness he played for the Lions, so he didn’t have much experience winning championships.

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Ouch!

(I’m still in mourning for the Pistons)

[dennisw]

“Thank you for referencing that article dennisw”

Thanks. I am on this kids side. He showed a quiet bit of exuberance and was not rubbing anything in. Everyone has an opinion here about this child (he has not even begun life) really. Holding up five fingers. What they have to say about this gesture at a track meet reflects how they feel about society, its customs and rules. Maybe even a racist judge.

[cherry]

You have to call it every time,otherwise it looks petty and biased.

[wrcase]

Couldn’t resist. I lived for years in NFC Norris country. Nobody considered the Lions as a rival in a division which was filled with rivalries.

[themidnightskulker]

I see what you did there😁😁😁

[dennisw]

What Grok AI has to say

[Magnum44]

Did someone piss on your cornflakes this morning or are you always a grump?

[Albion Wilde]

Except the team had a previous warning earlier that day. He was flaunting that warning. First violation - warning. Second violation - disqualification.

Thanks for letting me know that. Rules is rules. The article had said that other kids had done similar things in other meets, and that's what I was going by. Maybe they stopped after a warning, but he didn't. Good life lesson, if painful. As it should have been.