Algeria’s Hassiba Boulmerka, 1,500-meter champion in Barcelona and last year’s world champion, arrived at a press conference on crutches Friday bemoaning the circumstances that led to her badly spraining ankle.
Boulmerka finished last in her semifinal heat Thursday after her abrupt move from the middle of the pack with 400 meters left caused her to collide with one runner, reel, and then collide with another runner.
Not surprisingly, Boulmerka pointed her finger at those familiar suspects: organization and weather.
It was too hot and humid, she said. It was wrong to run the first round of her race in the heat of Wednesday morning and the semis in the heat of early night, she said. That is why a pack was there at the end, she said, and why she was susceptible to the injury she received.
“You had very tired people trying to hold onto their energy,” she said. “As a long-time runner, I think all the results will be real catastrophic in the long races. Athletes can’t recover because of the weather and humidity.”