IAAF World Athletics Championships

Medical advice from Great Britain Team Doctors unfortunately
ruled 24 year old Morpeth Harrier Laura Weightman out of
the Women’s 1500m Semi Final on Sunday 23rd August
at the IAAF World Athletics Championships,
currently being held in Beijing in China.

The Commonwealth Silver and European Bronze medallist
had fallen at the end of her heat on Saturday,
hitting her head on the track, which resulted in a rather
nasty graze above her right eye, which also drew blood,
and she was quite evidently in distress and delirious,
as TV pictures showed.

What followed afterwards was constant monitoring of her condition,
and although the athlete had awoken on the Sunday Morning
feeling somewhat better, doctors ruled otherwise however,
indicating that the concussion that she had suffered from
her fall had left her in an unfit condition to compete
at such a high level, and could be considered dangerous.

Weightman, who had finished sixth in the third heat in
Saturday’s first round in a time of 4m06.13s,
which gave her an automatic spot in the Semi Finals,
was obviously left feeling somewhat distraught,
and speaking on her behalf, her Coach Steve Cram,
also disappointed, said that Laura will certainly bounce back,
because that’s the way she is made, however needed to be left
to come to terms with what has happened.

Perhaps ironically, but maybe by way of some form of consolation,
Laura’s Great Britain colleague Laura Muir
of Dundee had a superb run in her Semi Final,
where she finished third behind Ethiopian favourite
Genzebe Dibaba, and second placed Kenyan
Faith Chepngetich Kipyegon.

Clocking a time of 4m07.95s, Muir was only a second
or so behind the front two, and was third
fastest overall over the two heats.

Weightman in the meanwhile will need to take some time out
to recover from her disappointments, we wish her well.