A collision involving a cart carrying athletes to their event at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest sent glass shards flying into the right eye of Jamaican sprinter Andrew Hudson, forcing him to race with blurred vision.
Key points:
The cart collided with another vehicle as it transported athletesHudson says he could not see out of his right eyeHe finished fifth in his race but was elevated to the final
Hudson, competing in the men’s 200 metres semifinals, said doctors had flushed some of the glass out after the accident.
He said he could not see out of his right eye but decided to race.
He finished fifth, but officials advanced him to the final, which will include nine sprinters instead of the usual eight.
“I did the best I could do,” Hudson said after finishing in 20.38 seconds.
“I was sitting in the middle of the room for like 20 minutes, trying to have a decision if I was going to compete or not. I worked hard to be here.
“And even under circumstances, everybody has hurdles in life. If I can run I’m going to try my best. So I tried.”
American gold-medal favourite Noah Lyles and others were in the cart with Hudson as it transported the sprinters from their warm-ups to a waiting room near the track for what was supposed to be the first of the evening’s three semifinal races.
An aerial video taken outside the stadium shows the cart moving down a sidewalk.
Another cart coming from a path to the left hits the athletes’ vehicle, sending a volunteer tumbling out.
The video then shifts to inside the athletes’ cart where Hudson is pressing his fingers against his right eye.
A spokesperson from Budapest’s local organising committee said it was “investigating the incident and reviewing the transport procedures”.
The race got pushed back about 30 minutes.
Hudson was still shaken as he wound his way out of the post-race interviews and back toward the medical tent.
“It was scary,” he said.
“It’s my eyesight. That’s more important. I’m not going to run track forever, but it just happens.”
Lyles won the semifinal in the night’s fastest time, 19.76, giving him a chance to defend his 200m world title and add it to the 100m gold he won earlier this week.
“Survived a crash and made the finals,” Lyles tweeted after the semifinal.
The scare outside the track overshadowed most of the news inside the stadium on day six of the championships.
In the absence of world-record holder and reigning champion, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, Femke Bol of Netherlands won the women’s 400m hurdles final in 51.70.
In the 100m hurdles, Jamaica’s Danielle Williams defeated Puerto Rican Olympic champion Jasmine Camacho-Quinn by the barest of margins, winning 12.43 to 12.44.
Fellow Jamaican Antonio Watson won the men’s 400m final in 44.22.
Among the Australian results, Stewart McSweyn reached the men’s 5,000m final, having been promoted by the race referee after he was clipped during heat and stumbled to the track.
National record holder Joseph Deng did not advance from the men’s 800m semifinals following an eight-place finish.
AP/ABC
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