There were heart-warming scenes on day one of the IAAF World Championships in Doha as Guinea-Bissau athlete Braima Suncar Dabo set aside competitive spirit to help an exhausted rival finish the 5,000m.
Both Dabo and Aruba’s Jonathan Busby are the only men competing in Qatar from their respective countries, with each federation allowed to send one athlete to the championships, regardless of any qualifying standard.
Even inside the air-conditioned Khalifa International Stadium, conditions for distance running were far from ideal, and neither man came into Friday’s 5,000m heat with an IAAF-ratified mark to their name over the distance.
With the leading contenders long finished – the race was won by Ethiopia’s Selemon Barega in a time of 13:24.69 – Busby looked to have little chance of completing the distance, barely able to stand, when Dabo opted to sacrifice his own race to help his competitor finish.
The two ran the final part of the race with Dabo holding Busby up, and eventually finished in a little over eighteen minutes, to a huge ovation.
