Tokyo, Sep 14: Steeplechaser Tim Van de Velde looked behind him and saw a fellow competitor gingerly crawling over the last barrier on a 3,000-meter journey that went terribly wrong for both.
The Belgian’s hopes for a top finish already long crushed, he turned around, put an arm around stumbling Carlos San Martin and helped him limp in to the finish.
That show of sportsmanship Saturday between the 10th- and 11th-place finishers in an otherwise routine qualifying race might very well have been the highlight of a busy opening night at track and field world championships, even on a day when five gold medals were handed out.
“I saw him stumbling and thought, Why not?’” Van de Velde said. “We both had bad luck, I guess. Maybe we can share some bad luck together.”
Van de Velde was racing in front as the runners approached the water pit to start the third of a 7 1/2-lap race. Steeplechase is a bruising challenge that asks them to vault five 3-foot-high barriers placed around the track, one of which fronts a 2-foot-deep water obstacle.
The Belgian clipped the barrier and fell in. By the time he got up, his hopes of winning, or placing in the top five to move onto the next round, were gone. He raced the rest of the way just to say he finished. (AP)
