British athlete left in tears after nasty fall and head blow during hurdles event – as she bravely vows to carry on
By Editor,Luke Power
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A British athlete was left in tears after falling and smashing her head during a race – but bravely vowed to carry on.
Abigail Pawlett, 22, suffered the accident during the 100-metre hurdles event on day one of the women’s heptathlon at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo.
The youngster from Wales was offered medical attention, according to the BBC, after tripping over the last hurdle and tumbling over the line, but has insisted on continuing in the heptathlon.
And Pawlett bounced back strongly in the high jump, smashing her personal best with an effort of 1.80m.
Just a few months ago Pawlett was competing for Loughborough University but now she is competing against some of the world’s best and sharing a camp with Katarina Johnson-Thompson and Jade O’Dowda.
As a cruel consequence of her fall, she finished bottom of the hurdles, scoring a time of 14.70 seconds, worse than any of the other competitors.
But the heptathlon is a two-day affair with seven events – the hurdles, high jump, shot put, 200m run, long jump, javelin throw, and 800m run – so there is time to recover and make up ground.
Pawlett was consoled by her coach as well as Johnson-Thompson and O’Dowda.
Jenny Meadows, Keely Hodgkinson’s coach, said: ‘It was tough to watch. She’s a really accomplished hurdler.
‘She went over in the British Championships in the hurdles and she was running great, wasn’t she? It was just that last hurdle.
‘It’s images that we don’t like to see. Such a shame.
‘I think she did really well to get over that line and still record, not what she wants, but a score that still allows her to go on in this event.
‘It’s so important that first event, to start off well and run a clean race. These are really hard images.’
Jessica Ennis-Hill said: ‘Abigail would have had such high expectations. You can see the girls there just consoling her and helping her.
‘It’s a decision – does she carry on? She has banged her head really hard as well. I am hoping she had that looked at as well.’
It is not known if she had a concussion test.
