Strange scene in athletics: shot putter starts in the hurdle sprint – and even scores points

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Curious scene at the European Games in Krakow. A shot putter sprints for the Belgian team in the athletics competition over 100 m hurdles. As expected, Jolien Boumkwo (29) is last – 20 seconds behind. But because the Swiss Ditaji Kambundji (21) is disqualified, she still gets two points for Belgium.

The reason for the oddity is a rule of team competitions. This states that the countries must provide an athlete in all disciplines or they will be disqualified. And Belgium should actually start with a former U20 European champion. But because Anne Zagré (33) is injured, Boumkwo has to step in spontaneously.

In training pants at the start

Asked about the reason for their start, Boumkwo says: “I didn’t want us to lose a point, the team is everything to me.”
Since she took the game easy, there was no risk for seventh in the shot put. Her opponents and fans celebrated her spontaneous effort.

For the Swiss team, the day of the athletics competition was day and night. Jason Joseph (24) sprinted to gold in the men’s 110 meters hurdles and immediately afterwards Kambundji was disqualified from the women’s due to a false start. In the ranking, the Swiss athletes are in a nice eleventh place, well ahead of the relegation places. (nsa)

Source : Blick