State track championships: Adams of North Salinas disqualified after finishing first in 400
CLOVIS — It was an expectation — the entire reason Clara Adams set foot on the track. Yet, after she appeared to have become a state track and field champion Saturday night, controversy erupted to mar what was thought to be a historic achievement.
Adams, a North Salinas High sophomore, was the first-place finisher in the 400 meters in the state track and field championships at Buchanan High in Clovis on Saturday.
In a celebratory moment between Adams and her father, she took a fire extinguisher from her dad, stepped away from the track and sprayed her shoes with the extinguisher after winning the race.
“I told Clara ‘you’re on fire,'” Clara’s father, David, said. “She did not do it in front of her opponents. She wasn’t disrespecting anyone.”
Apparently, California Interscholastic Federation officials felt differently, immediately disqualifying Adams and stripping her of her state title, leaving her in a state of disbelief moments before she was scheduled to run the 200 meters.
“I don’t know what’s going through my mind right now,” Clara Adams said later that night. “I’m disappointed and I feel robbed. I am in shock. They (officials) yelled at me and told me ‘we’re not letting you on the podium.’ They took my moment away from me.”
The day only got worse. Because Adams was disqualified for what was ruled an unsportsmanlike act after winning the 400, she was also disqualified from the meet and was not allowed to run in the 200, where she was one of the favorites to finish in the top three.
“I have video of it,” said David Adams, who is also his daughter’s sprint coach. “She was on the other side of the wall. I told her to step off the track. She did not spray her shoes on the track. We have protested the decision. I feel it was racially motivated (Adams is Black).”
The protest fell on deaf ears as the decision to disqualify Adams was upheld, preventing her from her second straight podium finish in the event — having finished fourth last year as a freshman.
“It’s a very unfortunate event,” said outgoing North Salinas head track coach Alan Green. “We are all heartbroken. Clara ran an incredible 400 race and is the fastest 400-meter girl in the state.”
Adams had hoped to match Calvin Harrison’s achievement 32 years ago of winning the 200 and 400, even wearing the throwback North Salinas uniforms from that era. But with the protest upheld, her day was finished.
“She was trying to have some fun at the finish line after the 400,” said Green, choosing his words carefully. “It was interpreted as unsportsmanlike. What an incredible season and run. It’s unfortunate.”
Adams had advanced to the finals after clocking the second-fastest time in the trials on Friday, nearly matching her state-leading time of 53.23 seconds, achieved at the Central Coast Section finals last week. In the finals, she blistered the track out of Lane 6, clocking 53.24.
“The official yelling at me said ‘we’re going to DQ you for unsportsmanlike conduct,'” Clara Adams said. “I found out 10 minutes before the 200 was going to start that I couldn’t run in it as well.”
On Friday, Adams had shaved nearly half a second off her best time in the 200, clocking 23.71 in the trials and going from being ranked 12th to No. 2 going into the finals.
Adams, who broke the CCS finals record in the 400 last week and is the county record holder, is now No. 2 all-time in the county in the 200, behind Monterey’s Sani Roseby’s mark of 23.52, set in 1999.
During the season, the Pacific Coast Athletic League’s Cypress Division 100, 200 and 400 meter champion set school records at North Salinas in the 100, 200, 400 and 800.
“Clara is taking it really hard,” said her father. “But she’s had a lot of support from people in the stadium.”
Adams was the only county athlete among the six who qualified for the state meet to advance to Saturday’s finals.
©2025 MediaNews Group, Inc. Visit at montereyherald.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
www.si.com
hornraiser.utexas.edu
