‘I’ve seen girls pinned to the ground’: collective fall wreaks havoc during run in Spain

‘He fell, he fell, he fell…’ France’s Alys Fino suffered a hard fall during the dangerous and chaotic start of the 10km race from Valencia on Sunday, where Ethiopian Yalemzerf Yehualau was close to his goal. own world record.

– Thank God, everything is in order! But I saw a lot of burnt girls, as if they were pinned to the ground after falling off a bicycle. Luckily, I didn’t come into contact with concrete, I was intertwined,” said Frenchwoman Alice Fino, a world finalist in the 3000m steeplechase last summer.

At Valence, this reputedly very fast 10K drew an impressive line-up of international runners in addition to amateur runners of all levels on Sunday, totaling over 12,000 participants, usually divided into “airlocks” based on their speed. The organization has not yet reported the incident and has not said if any members were injured.

“The organization made a mistake. The amateur lock was vacated too early, people rushed to the queue. The guard moved in front of them to make room for the elite in front, but first it exploded. There was a wave, it fell, fell, fell. The starting line was not wide enough,” complained Fino, who was able to get up and finish the race.

“People come to get time, there is no more respect. Everyone thinks about their little time after a little practice…” Ahead, Yalemzerf Yehualau lost a few seconds to his own world record, winning the race in 29 minutes 18.

The 23-year-old Ethiopian set the world record in 29:14 in February 2022 in Castellón (Spain).

On the fast track, she covered 14 minutes 47 minutes mid-race with pacemakers before speeding up again to pretty much win the race with an average pace close to 2 minutes 55 per kilometer. She had the second best performance over the course.