Belgium Was Out of Hurdlers. So a Shot-Putter Agreed to Run.
The runner to watch was in Lane 2, and she was hard to miss: Jolien Boumkwo of Belgium was a head taller and heavier than every other woman in the second heat of the 100-meter hurdles.
Boumkwo regularly competes in track and field’s strength events — the shot-put, hammer throw and discus — but on Saturday at the European Team Championships in Krakow, Poland, Belgium needed a hurdler. Any hurdler.
The two it had brought to the meet were injured, and if Belgium did not send a runner to the starting line in the 100 hurdles, its team would have been disqualified.
Source: The New York Times
