Two Olympic athletes who helped each other across the finish line after a mid-race collision in the women’s 5,000m have been granted places in tomorrow’s final, organizers said.
Nikki Hamblin and Abbey D’Agostino were praised for their sporting behavior after they clashed in Tuesday’s heat.
The drama unfolded when US runner D’Agostino clipped New Zealander Hamblin with about 2,000m to go, sending both sprawling to the ground.
Photo: EPA
As Hamblin lay on the track distraught, her hopes for an Olympic medal seemingly evaporated, D’Agostino tenderly helped her to her feet and encouraged her to finish the race.
“I went down, and I was like: ‘What’s happening? Why am I on the ground?’” Hamblin said. “Then suddenly this hand on my shoulder, like: ‘Get up, get up, we have to finish this,’ and I was like: ‘Yup, yup, you’re right. This is the Olympic Games. We have to finish this.’”
“I’m so grateful for Abbey for doing that for me. That girl is the Olympic spirit right there,” Hamblin said. “I’ve never met her before, like I’ve never met this girl before, and isn’t that just so amazing? Such an amazing woman.”
D’Agostino sustained an ankle injury in the collision, but Hamblin deliberately hung back in the field to offer encouragement as the two women completed the race.
“If I can even give her like 1 percent back of what she gave me when she helped me get up off the track, that would be amazing,” Hamblin said.
Initially it looked as if both women and a third runner involved in the collision — Jennifer Wenth of Austria — had failed to qualify for the final.
However a statement by Olympic organizers late on Tuesday said all three had been advanced to the final.
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