00:00The athletes launched off the starting line and it was obvious the runner in lane two
00:04didn't stand a chance. She fell far behind immediately and it looked like she could barely
00:09jump over the hurdles, let alone compete with some of the fastest runners in Europe. But you
00:14can't really blame her. After all, Yolene Boomkwo wasn't a runner at all. She was actually a shot
00:20putter. And it might surprise you to know that despite being the slowest on the track in an
00:24event she'd barely trained in, she actually didn't come last in that division. See, in 2023 at the
00:29European Athletics Team Championships, Belgium was struggling. They were sitting near the bottom
00:34of the table and they'd just lost both their 100 metre and 400 metre hurdlers to injury. The 16 team
00:41division gave descending points according to placing, with 16 points going to first place,
00:46one point going to last place, but no points for a non-start or a disqualification. So when Yolene
00:52found out that her country no longer had a single competitor in the women's hurdles, she decided to
00:57step up. She knew she wasn't faster than any of the other runners on the track, but what she could
01:02do was come last, which would at least mean one more point for her country, maybe even saving them
01:08from relegation if it would have come down to the wire. So after consulting with her coach and promising
01:13to traverse the hurdles as safely as she could so she wouldn't injure herself, Yolene ran the race,
01:18set her season best time of 32.81 seconds, and in doing so, she actually ended up earning her team
01:25two points after Switzerland's runner was disqualified for a false start in her heat.
01:30Yolene eventually received an award from European Athletics in recognition of her team's spirit,
01:35and with those two points, Belgium was still relegated. They were behind Greece by like
01:40six points, but it was still worth a shot.
