The runner to watch was on lane 2 and it was hard to miss: Belgium’s Jolien Boumkwo was a head taller and heavier than all the other women in heat two of the 100m hurdles.
Boumkwo regularly competes in track and field strength events – shot put, hammer throw and discus throw – but on Saturday Belgium needed a hurdler at the European Team Championships in Kraków, Poland. Any hurdler.
The two it brought to the competition were injured and if Belgium had not entered a runner in the 100 hurdles their team would have been disqualified.
So Boumkwo agreed to run. Somehow.
Boumkwo beamed and waved for the television cameras as she was introduced to the other runners.
Form wasn’t her priority. It wasn’t about speed either. “My team is the most important thing for me,” said 29-year-old Boumkwo, who finished seventh in the shot put on Friday.
She knew Belgium needed every point. His team hoped to remain in the top division of the European Team Championships, an event that pits countries against their kin in three performance-based leagues. A disqualification would most likely mean a demotion of Belgium. Running, even if she finished last, would mean two valuable points that she knew could make the difference.
“I couldn’t let myself lose a point,” she told Agence France-Presse. “That’s why I thought about participating.
“There was no risk for me if I took it easy.”
And so Boumkwo became a hurdler for an afternoon. She took her time instead of jumping over each hurdle and then jogging to the next. The rest of the field had already cleared the second hurdle and were sprinting toward the next when Boumkwo, very cautiously, lifted her foot over the first.
Her goal was to get to the finish, and to do it on her feet, no matter how long it took. An embarrassing fall probably wouldn’t have made any difference – she knew she’d be last – but an injury would definitely have made things worse. Gently and calmly, she overcame every obstacle and crossed the finish line in 32.81 seconds.
The crowd cheered appreciatively. A follower, Maja Maunsbach of Sweden, greeted Boumkwo with a two-handed high-five just after the finish line. Portugal’s Catarina Queiros, who had been running alongside Boumkwo on the trail, gave her a hand of congratulations.
Both Maunsbach, who finished seventh, and Queiros, who finished sixth, had finished a fraction of a second behind race winner Teresa Errandonea of Spain, who won in 13.22 seconds.
However, the fairy tale for Boumkwo and Belgium was not to end. Belgium finished 14th in the team standings, 6.5 points behind Greece – too far behind for even Boumkwo to catch up – and were relegated to Division 2.