Confident she had done nothing wrong, Australian Lauren Wells was vindicated when her disqualification from the 400m hurdles was quashed at the world athletics championships on Sunday.
Wells looked to have cruised into the semi-finals after running a season's best of 55.65 seconds to finish second in her heat.
The mood turned sour immediately after the race when Wells was told she had been disqualified for trailing her back leg around a barrier.
But after viewing footage, the race referee ruled she should not have been disqualified in the first place, reinstating Wells in the field for Monday's semis.
"To finish second in my heat is great," said the ACT athlete.
"There is more to do for the next round, but today was about keeping it safe and executing something that would give me this decent time.
"I'm happy but then I walked off the track and saw the DQ."
Australian head coach Craig Hilliard and delegation boss Simon Nathan took care of the appeal process.
"It's good to know that it's been sorted," said the 27-year-old Wells, who has now made it to the semis at the past three world championships.
"It was stressful though, because no one knew why I was out.
"It was a pretty tense time while trying to work how to fix it."
American Cassandra Tate was the fastest qualifier in 54.27.
