Cheers to tears: Race walker sunk by celebration

Spain’s Laura Garcia-Caro learned the hard way to wait until the finish line to celebrate after missing out on a medal when she was overtaken by Ukraine’s Lyudmila Olyanovska in the 20km race walk at the European Athletics Championships on Friday.

Garcia-Caro, in third place going into the final straight in Rome’s Stadio Olimpico, began to celebrate what she thought was a bronze medal as she approached the finish line.

However, her smile of joy as she waved the Spanish flag quickly faded as Olyanovska surged past her with just 5 meters to go, denying the 29-year-old a medal in a moment that went viral on social media.

“I am quite disappointed. The first part of the race I suffered, but [I did] recover and in the last 10 meters I thought I had it but I didn’t,” Garcia-Caro told local media.

“Now I have to assimilate [what happened] and heal my heart,” she added.

Disaster! 😱

Rule number one: don’t celebrate too early! 😬#Roma2024 #IgniteTheFire pic.twitter.com/neqiuXoEz3

— European Athletics (@EuroAthletics) June 7, 2024

Gold and silver went to Italians Antonella Palmisano and Valentina Trapletti in the 20km race, which had 35 athletes from 14 countries take part.