Britain's George Mills and Refugee Team's Dominic Lokinyomo Lobalu fall as they compete in the men's 5000m heat the Paris 2024 Olympic Games

The Paris 2024 men's 5000m heats took place Wednesday with both experiencing bizarre scenes as runners collided in one heat and a clueless cameraman nearly caused chaos in the other. 

The first heat of the men's 5000m round one saw Team GB's George Mills fall after being brought down by France's Hugo Hay and consequently bring down three other runners in the melee that followed. 

The Brit, son of ex-footballer Danny Mills, claimed to be tripped as he entered the final stage of the race and ended up finishing 30 seconds after the leader in 18th with a time of 14:37.08. 

 The 25-year-old was furious with Hay after the race exchanging heated words with the French athlete but has now been advanced to the 5000m final after the second heat had finished.

The race referee advanced Mills along with the three others who fell as a result of the collision: Dominic Lokinyomo Lobalu of the Refugee Olympic Team, Mike Foppen of the Netherlands and Thierry Ndikumwenayo of Spain.

"I was about to kick into the straight and boom: The French lad took me down," said Mills. "I was like, 'Nobody in this field can run away from me at this pace', so I was just sitting, waiting, biding my time, gonna kick off the home straight then bang, hit the deck. What can you do?"

Hugo Hay of Team France and George Mills of Team Great Britain in a heated exchange after competing in the Men's 5000m Round 1 at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. GETTY IMAGES
Hugo Hay of Team France and George Mills of Team Great Britain in a heated exchange after competing in the Men's 5000m Round 1 at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. GETTY IMAGES

There were then more shocking scenes just 10 minutes into the other heat of the men's 5000m round one as a cameraman strolled across the track blocking the runners and nearly causing a second collision.

As the group neared the turn and headed into the final four laps the rogue cameraman was seen ambling directly into their path blissfully unaware that the pack were heading straight for him.

Runners needed to dart around him to avoid a collision but luckily nobody took a tumble. 



Jakob Ingebrigtsen was left visibly fuming but ultimately advanced with the best men's 5000m round one time of 13:51.59.

It came after the 23-year-old failed to make the top three in the 1500m on Tuesday when Cole Hocker caused a surprise upset by taking gold with Ingresten sliding down into fourth. 

He recently took to social media to rue his "big mouth" after missing out on medals, a race he was expected to vie for gold with GB's George Kerr. 

The final of the men's 5000m is scheduled to take place on Saturday 10 August at 18:50 local time.