Belgian shot putter Jolien Boumkwo showed tremendous team spirit when she ran the 100m hurdles to prevent her team from being disqualified.
During the European Championships in Poland, Boumkwo agreed to run the hurdles race due to the fact that Belgium’s two hurdlers had to withdraw due to injury.
If no one competed in that event for Belgium, they would have been disqualified.
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Boumkwo was all smiles ahead of the race and eventually finished the race in 32.81 seconds, 19 seconds behind the winning hurdler. You can watch the footage below.
As she crossed the finish line, Boumkwo received a huge round of applause from the crowd and was also congratulated by her opponents.
Speaking about the incident that has now gone viral, Boumkwo told CNN: “In my head it looks a bit more elegant than what I’ve seen on the video, but it could be worse as well.
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“I was really excited to see how many seconds or minutes I did during the race. It was less than [one minute] so I’m proud of myself!”
She added: “I was like: it would be a pity if just we would lose by one point so I will just take this on my account and just go for it and enjoy every moment. For me, that’s important as well when you’re doing sports at a high level.
“I checked with my coach if there were any risks for me doing it and he gave me a green light. I’m really happy that this race symbolized something – the team spirit, the team playership – and that people from different situations – professionals, non-professionals, people who are not into sports – really see it and it really connects people.”
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Boumkwo went on to thank fans for their wonderful messages.
She said: “I have never been this famous before … It’s really crazy.
“All the nice messages – it’s unbelievable. I’m really surprised … I hope that I can still enjoy this moment for a long time.”
Marcus Chan