Melissa Courtney-Bryant sprinted to silver at the European Indoor Championships after the upset of hearing one of her closest friends in athletics screaming from a horror fall that left her motionless on the track.
With the runners having just completed the first kilometre of the 3,000 metres, the Dutch athlete Maureen Koster fell after tripping in a packed bunch between the British duo Hannah Nuttall and Innes Fitzgerald.
Koster took a sickening blow to the head and appeared to be unconscious while being hurriedly moved from the track before the runners lapped around again just over 30 seconds later.
A packed home Netherlands crowd, which included King Willem-Alexander, briefly fell silent as Koster received urgent medical attention before being carried out of the arena on a stretcher as the race continued. The Dutch Athletics Federation later posted a message on X which said ‘Strength Maureen’ and reported that she was “conscious and responsive”.
Credit: BBC
The fall was missed by the initial live BBC Two coverage, who were taking the local television feed and showing the high jump. “I really do apologise, we’ve just had a fall in the 3,000m,” said Steve Cram, the BBC commentator. “They might have to stop this. She is unconscious on the track it looks like. I am really sorry that we were away from this quite as long as that. That is a local directors’ choice. She has been removed from the track right in front of me.”
The three British women in the race – Courtney-Bryant as well as Nuttall and Fitzgerald, who finished respectively sixth and eighth – were unaware of the severity of the incident until the race had finished.
Courtney-Bryant, who was narrowly beaten to gold by Ireland’s Sarah Healey in a dramatic finale, used to train with Koster at Loughborough University and still regularly rooms with her at Diamond League events.
“I was getting pushed in the back constantly,” said Courtney-Bryant. “Maureen’s a really good friend of mine so I wanted to check whether she is OK. I heard her scream… but I couldn’t see anything. I just thought: ‘That’s Maureen who has gone down’. I saw a leg as I was running around, and I knew it was her shoe.
“It put everyone on edge, and everyone was pushing more. It was a bit of carnage. Everyone else was really anxious because of it.”
Nuttall said that she “heard something click behind me” followed by a scream before later almost falling herself when she was clipped by another athlete in the final lap. “It was really nasty out there,” she said.
Ingebrigtsen pips Mills to gold
Courtney-Bryant’s silver was matched in the men’s 3,000m by George Mills who, having led for much of the race, was overhauled by the Norwegian great Jakob Ingebrigtsen.
After also winning the 1500m on Friday night, Ingebrigtsen has now won a record 12 individual European Championship gold medals. It was the 24-year-old’s sixth ‘double’ of either the 1500m and 5,000m outdoors or the 1500m and 3,000m indoors.
Mills is the son of the former England football defender Danny, who described Ingebrigtsen as one of the all-time greats of any sport. “It was like watching a penalty shoot-out – I have sore hands from banging the boards,” said Danny Mills. “I have a lot of respect for Jakob. He is one of the best of all time, up there with Michael Phelps, Michael Johnson and Usain Bolt in his discipline. George pushed him close. He is building all the time and sooner rather than later he will have his time.”
George Mills also believes that the gap is closing. “I came here to win, not to compete – silver was the bare minimum I should have,” he said. “He’s probably one of the greatest our sport has ever seen. It pushes you to get more out of yourself than you probably ever imagined. I really believe that one day I will achieve it.”
Ingebrigtsen, who has been jogging to and from the venue after racing on all four days of the championships, said that medals were what he trains for but avoided the chance to criticise arch-rival Josh Kerr, who is prioritising Michael Johnson’s lucrative Grand Slam Track League in his spring schedule.
“I can’t speak for anyone but myself – I enjoy what I do,” said Ingebrigtsen. “Sometimes you’re lucky, sometimes you’re unlucky. But the more you practice, the luckier you get.”
There was a controversial end to the championships, with the British team of Lina Nielsen, Hannah Kelly, Emily Newnham and Amber Anning finishing second over the line in the 4x400m relay but briefly upgraded to gold.
Britain had accused the Netherlands of obstruction at the final handover but the hosts were then successful with a counter-appeal. The various appeals led to a 15-minute delay for the medal ceremony.
It left Jeremiah Azu, who won the men’s 60m on Saturday, as Britain’s only gold medallist of a championships dominated by the Netherlands with seven golds.
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