A canceled flight caused some Portuguese athletes to be stranded in Frankfurt for several hours, ultimately jeopardizing Portugal’s participation in the World Athletics Championships, national technical director José Santos revealed on Saturday.
heard by TSF This Saturday afternoon, the national technical director explains that the athlete João Coelho was prevented from participating in the 4×400 meter mixed relay event at the 19th edition of the World Athletics Championships.
“It was something we thought we were going to be fine with and even – who knows – breaking the national record even for the times we already had, it was a pretty good messenger,” José Santos begins, explaining, before adding that despite the high expectations, the athlete would have just arrived in Budapest at dawn this Saturday.
“Our best athlete, João Coelho, just arrived yesterday, after 12:00 a.m. without proof, with nothing. We felt that it was best not to make him run so as not to create a physical problem that would be difficult to cure later,” he justifies.
Without the participation of this sprinter, who improved his 400-meter national record to 44.79 seconds, the Portuguese team ended up in last place.
José Santos regrets what happened and maintains that it is necessary to “evaluate what happened” with the Lufthansa airline, describing a chaotic scenario at the airport.
“I left Portugal on the 17th after lunch and arrived today [sábado] in the morning with lost bags and athletes without equipment. Just today we had to bring 15 bags,” she advances.
A situation that, in reality, ended up not contributing to the good performance of the Portuguese team.
“This is incredible, this was not right. It is not done. Unfortunately, this championship started badly, but that’s it, it ends well,” the national coach wished.
Source: TSF
