Hungarian hurdler Anna Toth collapsed face-first to the ground in horrifying scenes at the European Athletics Championships in Rome, bringing her medal bid to a painful end.
Toth’s nightmare began late in the women’s 100m hurdles semi-final when she fell as she approached the finish line.
The 20-year-old appeared to stumble over one hurdle and was unable to recover as she smashed into the next, eventually collapsing face-first onto the ground in a brutal scene.
As Toth lay there in despair, unable to comprehend the fact that the finish line was so close, medical personnel quickly rushed to his aid.
As medical staff worked to treat Toth, her plight was difficult to watch.
She did not appear to be injured.
Toth wasn’t the only hurdler to meet unfortunate fate on Sunday.
Ireland’s Sarah Lavin, who was in the semi-finals and ranked number one when the toss fell, suffered a similar fate in the final.
Lavin’s momentum halted at the second hurdle in the final and that was pretty much it from there, as he finished in seventh place.
“I had a really good start, I was really fast, like in the semi-final,” Lavin told RTE Sport after the race, “and then I think I hit it with my front and back legs and it was a nasty one.”
“I lost everything and had to start from scratch because obviously I lost all my acceleration. I just couldn’t hang on,” Lavin said in a post-race interview. “It’s very raw right now. I just couldn’t hang on.”
“It’s not about the ranking. I know my performance should be much better than that.”
For the athletes, with just a few weeks to go until the Olympics, it’s a chance to make amends for tough results in the 100 metres in Europe.
