FIt was the surreal image of the second day of the First Division of athletics in the European Games… but at the same time one of those with the greatest commitment to sport. The second series of the 100 meter hurdles, in which the Spanish Teresa Errandonea won with 13.22, had the Belgian Jolien Maliga Boumkwo as the main protagonist.
the athlete, national hammer and weight champion -who finished seventh in weight the previous day with 16.58-, He played the 100 hurdles race as a commitment to his team after the starting athlete, Anne Zagr, and also Hanne Claes, who had to run the 400 hurdles, were injured.
“It’s not a joke,” Boumkwo admitted on the networks the day before, when he already knew that he would contest the race. Thus, and although it is a very different test from the one she disputes, Boumkwo took the start, the slowest of the sprinters with 0.230 reaction time, and was jumping the fences as best she could, without throwing any, until she completed the 100 meters.
Nineteen seconds after Errandonea crossed the finish line, the Belgian reached the finish, to the applause of the little public that attends the Silesia stadium these days, with a time of 32.81. With a smile, he received the congratulations of his rivals, aware of the difficulty of the company that he had just closed. The Belgian thus achieved two points for the team, whose objective is to save the category in this competition. It is now ranked penultimate and the last three ranked countries are relegated.
