The men’s heptathlon at the World Athletics Indoor Championships is one of the most challenging events for athletes to partake in, and for one athlete the task became even more difficult following an unexpected obstacle during the 1,000m race.
Unsuspecting Brazilian Jose Fernando Ferreira was struck by a flying pole while running, causing him to fall to the ground in Torun, Poland.
The 26-year-old’s race was being held at the same time as the men’s pole vault when the incident occurred.
As Ferreira ran down the back straight, Czechia pole vaulter David Holy was beginning his take-off for his event.
And as they matched almost stride-for-stride, Holy failed to clear the bar – instead crashing into it and causing it to dislodge and fall.
The pole came down in unfortunate timing for Ferreira who was struck by it, resulting in him taking a tumble and ruining his race.
However, Ferreira did eventually pick himself up to finish the race – albeit coming home in last place with a time of 2:56.47, seven seconds behind his nearest rival Teo Bastien.
Daily Mail Sport have contacted World Athletics for comment about the incident.
Overall Ferreira finished 12th in the heptathlon with 5,627 points and a long way back from champion Simon Ehammer – with the Switzerland star setting a new world-record total of 6,670 points.
Holy’s performance didn’t go to plan either with the 28-year-old finishing last in 12th in the pole vault.
He recorded a best height of 5.50metres – which was significantly lower than champion Armand Duplantis.
Duplantis won his fourth consecutive world indoor championships with a tournament record vault of 6.25m, a 10cm improvement on his winning height a year ago in Nanjing.
