A French hurdler has won a national title in a personal best despite having one eye bandaged for being punched in the face just 20 minutes before the race.
Wilfried Happio was attacked on the warm-up track just before he was scheduled to compete in the 400m hurdles final at the French National Athletics Championships in Caen on Saturday night.
He was punched in the face several times before his coach Olivier Vallaeys dragged the attacker away, the Telegraph reported.
One person was arrested by police over the attack and the French Athletics Federation later filed an official complaint, but the reasons for the attack and the name of Happio’s attacker were unknown.
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Happio was reportedly still coughing blood moments before the race and lined up with his left eye bandaged and a fold-down headband holding it in place. But it didn’t seem to make any difference as he beat his rivals to win in a personal best of 48.57 seconds.
Screenshot/FFAthletism
Wilfried Happio has won the French national title in the 400m hurdles despite being attacked just 20 minutes before the race.
“I don’t want to dwell on it,” Happio said after the race. “We leave that to the competent people. To talk about the race, we worked a lot, we remade the music and that’s it. The feelings were good. I’m glad I did it this time. Physically I’m okay.”
Vallaeys said someone jumped on Happio and punched him, the Telegraph reported.
“A man who came out of nowhere as if he really was, Wilfried Happio, and wondered what he was like. I strapped it up. It was 20 minutes before the race, we were ready to go to the call room. We are shocked.
“The man has been arrested. Wilfried is doing well. But I’m speechless, it’s a mess. Pure aggression. It’s outrageous. These are barbaric methods.”
Happio qualified for the world championships next month with his victory. I reached the Olympic semifinals last year.