Because the world’s greatest beer milers gathered on the Beer Mile World Traditional in Chicago on July 1, famend suspended U.S. distance runner Shelby Houlihan made historical past by changing into the primary girl to interrupt the six-minute barrier within the beer mile occasion. Houlihan crossed the end line in 5:43.81, setting a brand new world file. Nonetheless, regardless of her achievement, she didn’t win the championship as she was not allowed to compete within the ladies’s championship part.
Shelby Houlihan, working her first race since her suspension, turns into the primary girl to ever run a beer mile in below six minutes (5 minutes, 43 seconds) pic.twitter.com/mEd0x31s03
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) July 1, 2023
Whereas nonetheless serving her four-year ban, the beer mile served as Houlihan’s comeback to aggressive working. Though she stays ineligible to compete in USATF and World Athletics sanctioned occasions till 2025, the unaffiliated Beer Mile World Traditional provided her a platform to race and drink beer.
Because the beer mile is an impartial occasion, separate from the jurisdiction of USATF or World Athletics, Houlihan was allowed to take part regardless of her nonetheless serving a four-year ban from a constructive check for nandrolone throughout an out-of-competition drug check carried out on Dec. 15, 2020. Houlihan has constantly maintained her innocence, attributing the constructive check to a tainted pork burrito from a meals truck. Regardless of an attraction towards the ruling, she was unsuccessful in overturning the choice.
Race organizers clarified that whereas they allowed Houlihan to take part, she was not permitted to compete within the ladies’s championship part, expressing the necessity to develop a proper coverage for athletes competing below suspension.
Within the ladies’s championship race, Elizabeth Laseter from Austin, Texas, emerged because the champion, setting an official world file time of 6:03. Laseter’s file shall be acknowledged over Houlihan’s because it was achieved within the sanctioned championship race.
Based on beermile.com, the official web site for the beer mile, they don’t have specified laws concerning drug testing or the requirement for all contributors to supply proof of a clear check.
To efficiently full a beer mile in accordance with the acknowledged guidelines of the Beer Mile World Traditional, contributors should full 4 laps round a 400-meter observe whereas consuming a beer earlier than every lap. The beers should have a minimal quantity of 340mL and an alcohol by quantity (ABV) content material of 5 per cent or increased.
