London 2012 Olympics: Mitchell raced with broken leg during relay

ANY athlete complaining of a minor injury during the Olympics had their troubles put in perspective yesterday when it was confirmed that American Manteo Mitchell ran on a broken leg.

Mitchell ran the first leg of the men’s 4x400m relay and helped the United States finish joint-fastest qualifiers for the final as they and the Bahamas were given identical times of two minutes 58.87 seconds. But the 25-year-old will not contest the final after an X-ray confirmed he had broken his left fibula bone during his run.

Mitchell said: “Three days ago I was going up the stairs (in the Olympic village) and I kind of missed one and landed awkwardly. I got treatment and I was fine. I did workouts and when I warmed up today I felt really well. I felt I could go 44 [seconds]-low. I got out pretty slow, but I picked it up and when I got to the 100m mark it felt weird. I was thinking I just didn’t feel right. As soon as I took the first step past the 200m mark I felt it break. I heard it. I even put out a little war cry, but the crowd was so loud you couldn’t hear it. I wanted to just lie down. It felt like somebody literally just snapped my leg in half.

“I knew if I finished strong we could still get it [the baton] around. I saw Josh Mance motioning me in for me to hand it off to him, which lifted me. I didn’t want to let those three guys down, or the team down, so I just ran on it. It hurt so bad. I’m pretty amazed that I still split 45 seconds on a broken leg.”