Commonwealth silver medallist Kyle Langford escapes ban after appearing to grab race official by throat

Kyle Langford, Commonwealth 800m silver medallist, has escaped a ban despite video footage appearing to show him grab a race official by the throat.

Langford, who finished fourth at last year’s World Championships, reacted angrily towards an official after he was told he was banned from competing in a British Milers’ Club race at Watford on June 29 for warming up on the track while an earlier race was ongoing. He was later allowed to run and finished fifth.

Video footage of the incident emerged online after the event, prompting UK Athletics to conduct a disciplinary investigation.

The governing body announced on Wednesday that Langford, who is on centralised funding, would be fined £1,000 to be donated to charity and have to serve one day of athletics community service assisting officials at a junior event. A final warning will also be entered on his record.

The decision not to ban him has been criticised by some in the sport, who claim it sets a dangerous precedent for offences against officials.

“I’m gobsmacked at how lenient this is,” Jessica Ennis-Hill’s former coach Toni Minichiello told The Guardian. “It is a massive error of judgment by the disciplinary panel.

“You should never lay your hands on an official and if it was one of my athletes I would have kicked them out of my training group.”

Langford had earlier apologised for the incident, saying he would “never repeat this behaviour”. He said: “I let myself and my support team down by reacting angrily to an official at the BMC event. I allowed pre-race tension to get to me too much and my behaviour fell well short of what it should be.

“I have apologised to the official involved and have also followed up in writing, but I know that this wasn’t acceptable and I apologise that I behaved in that way.

“The officials in the UK are amongst the best in the world, and their work at events like the BMC have meant athletes like me have had chance to compete in some brilliant races.”