After USA’s Abbey D’Agostino and New Zealand’s Nikki Hamblin collided during the women’s 5000m qualifiers on August 16, they made sure each other finished the race instead of leaving each other behind.
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Unfortunately, because of D’Agostino’s injury, she will not get one more moment in the spotlight to showcase her talents.
Despite encountering a massive hurdle on Tuesday’s event, runners Abbey D’Agostino and Nikki Hamblin showed the world just what it meant to be an Olympian. But when the two started running again, D’Agostino fell to the ground in pain as her right knee gave out. The drama unfolded when Hamblin tripped with around 2,000m to go and tumbled to the ground, accidentally bringing D’Agostino down behind her.
“Get up. We have to finish this”, the American athlete said.
A statement from USA Track and Field (USATF) on Wednesday said D’Agostino had suffered tears to her right anterior cruciate ligament and meniscus and strained ligaments, ending her season. “Isn’t that so wonderful?”
Both Hamblin and D’Agostino will be allowed to enter the final race because they were affected by a trip.
She waited at the finish line where they shared a hug. “I told her to get up, dust herself off, have a quick look around and then get right back to running”.
In an Olympics that has seen a few unsavory incidents – the Egyptian judoka who refused to shake hands with his Israeli opponent, the booing of a French pole vaulter by the Brazilian crowd – Hamblin and D’Agostino provided a memory that captured the Olympic spirit. “We have to finish this, ‘” said Hamblin.
I am so grateful to Abbey for helping me. I tried to help her.
“I had never met her, isn’t that so incredible?” “They’ll be a recovery period but I think in a year from now there’s a very good chance she’ll be back as good as she ever was”. “Such an wonderful woman”, Hamblin said in a later interview. When someone asks me what happened in Rio in 20 years time, that is my story. I’d say it was somewhere around the BP oil spill in its magnitude.
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Olympic officials have chose to take exception to the two runners, stating that both Hamblin and D’Agnostino would return in Friday’s upcoming race.
