Belgium Shot Putter Runs Hurdles to Prevent Disqualification
The phrase "taking one for the team" gets thrown around pretty liberally. But that was exactly the case for Belgian shot putter Jolien Boumkwo, who competed in a hurdles event over the weekend to prevent her team from being disqualified.
Boumkwo stepped in for two of her teammates, Anne Zagre and Hanne Claes, who had gotten injured, preventing them from competing in the second heat of the hurdles competition at the European Team Championships in Krakow, Poland, on Saturday. If Belgium couldn't produce an athlete to run the race, her team would have been disqualified.
Boumkwo, who placed seventh in shot put, told the New York Times that she thought there would be a "very small" chance of actually having to run hurdles. But once it became clear that she was her team's last hope, she decided to "make the best of it and try to enjoy it."
"It was a beautiful atmosphere," she later recalled. “I took my race seriously ... hurdle by hurdle."
And hurdle by hurdle she did take it. A full head taller than the other runners, Boumkwo jogged to each hurdle and gingerly stepped over them, carefully making sure that she didn't knock any over—which would have cost her team further deductions. Beaming the entire time, Boumkwo was cheered on by the crowd and greeted with high fives and handshakes by her fellow competitors at the finish line.
Every point *does* count at the European Team Championships!
— European Athletics (@EuroAthletics) June 24, 2023
Seventh in the shot put, Jolien Boumkwo ???????? steps in for the 100m hurdles at the very last minute in #Silesia2023! ???? #EG2023
(@TeamBelgium, @The_EOC) pic.twitter.com/3rhERw9y5I
And although she came in dead last with a time of 32.81 seconds—19 seconds after the second-to-last finisher from Sweden—Boumkwo scored her team two crucial points that could have potentially kept Belgium in the Division I standings.
Unfortunately, it didn't pan out. Belgium eventually placed 14th out of 16th, a full 6.5 points behind Greece, and the three lowest scoring countries were relegated to Division II. Despite the disappointment, Boumkwo said this was "probably [her] best European Championship ever."