Warsaw Marathon Foundation releases statement after Kenya’s Recho Kosgei collapsed

She collapsed to the concrete about 2 hours, 30 minutes into the 26.2-mile race.

Warsaw Marathon Foundation has released a statement after Kenya’s Recho Kosgei collapsed 800 meters from the finish line during the 39th PZU Warsaw Marathon in Poland on Sunday September, 24th.

Recho Kosgei, 32, was in commanding lead in the IAAF Bronze label race in the Polish capital before collapsing.

In their official statement, the Warsaw Marathon Foundation said that aiding Kosgei would have led to automatic disqualification according to the rules of IAAF.

''Recho Kosgei, after an ambitious and exhausting run she led, wavered 800 meters away from the finish line. She took on a dramatic fight to get back to the race. According to the rules of IAAF, helping her would mean automatic disqualification and wasting all the effort of the day,” read part of the statement.

The statement goes further to answer the question of whether there was rescue medical team in sight to help the 32 year old: "The athlete was conscious, and her life was not endangered. Since the athlete did not signal that she wants to give up, the marathon staff standing on the side of the road and in the lead vehicle that stopped in front of her has monitored the situation. An ambulance was called immediately."

Kosgei also said in the statement that she felt very strong during the whole race but could not remember what happened, only learnt of her struggles when she saw herself on the video.

"As the athlete herself describes this situation: ‘I felt very strong the whole race. I don’t remember what happened at that point. When I see myself on the video I just know I really wanted to get up and keep going. (…) I was so confident and knew this was going to be my day. After all those months of hard work with my trainings mates of Volare Sports, I knew I could do it.’

Kosgei’s manager also confirmed all was well with her except that she missed grabbing a drink during the race which led to her exhaustion.

"As her manager said before, Recho missed her bottles at the 30, 35 and 40km mark during the race. ‘It was a torture, I saw the Ethiopian lady passing me and knew the game was over. But I thank God I am healthy. I was taken to the hospital and they took good care of me. I could travel home the next day.’

“We have been in contact with the organizers about this matter, they have taken care of Recho in their best way possible. Assistance came immediately when they discovered. Normally officials are not allowed to help because the athlete will be disqualified. Our colleague rushed to Recho and helped her out. She was helped as soon as possible,” says the manager of the athlete.