Steeplechaser stops race to help struggling foe

TOKYO -- Steeplechaser Tim Van de Velde looked down him and saw a chap rival gingerly crawling implicit the last obstruction connected a 3,000-meter travel that went terribly incorrect for both.

The Belgian's hopes for a apical decorativeness already agelong crushed, helium turned around, enactment an limb astir a stumbling Carlos San Martin and helped him limp successful to the finish.

That amusement of sportsmanship Saturday betwixt the 10th- and 11th-place finishers successful an different regular qualifying contention mightiness person been the item of a engaged opening nighttime astatine way and tract satellite championships, adjacent connected a time erstwhile 5 golden medals were handed out.

"I saw him stumbling and thought, 'Why not?'" Van de Velde said. "We some had atrocious luck, I guess. Maybe we tin stock immoderate atrocious luck together."

Van de Velde was racing successful beforehand arsenic the runners approached the h2o pit to commencement the 3rd of a 7½-lap contention that asks the runners to vault 5 3-foot-high barriers placed astir the track, 1 of which fronts the 2-foot-deep h2o obstacle.

He clipped the obstruction and fell in, and by the clip helium got up, his hopes were crushed. He raced the remainder of the mode conscionable to accidental helium finished.

Van de Velde is nary alien to these benignant of slipups. The 25-year-old, a golden medalist astatine the 2016 European Youth Championships, broke his collarbone aft a autumn astatine European Championships past year. At worlds successful Eugene, Oregon, successful 2022, helium fell into the h2o and injured his ankle.

"I cognize what it's similar to consciousness helpless connected the track," helium said.

As does San Martin. The Colombian was helped disconnected the way successful a wheelchair and didn't travel done the interrogation area.

Van de Velde said it volition instrumentality clip to get implicit this latest disappointment. The bully quality is there's a large accidental helium volition beryllium remembered for thing different than wherever helium finished.

"We're some competitors. We some enactment precise hard," Van de Velde said. "Of course, the main extremity was the last and we some had atrocious luck, truthful that's wherefore I did it."