This is true sportsmanship and can hardly be surpassed in terms of fairness: the biathlete Michela Carrara renounced the victory in the individual at the European Championships in Lenzerheide on Wednesday – voluntarily!
Because when all athletes have crossed the finish line, the Italian is 47 seconds ahead of Germany’s Lisa Maria Spark (22) and is therefore European champion. However, her coach Edoardo Mezzaro then pointed out that she missed two targets in the first standing stage. However, the organizers did not notice the two mistakes. The reason for this could hardly be more bizarre.
The American Jaquelyn Garso (23) was shooting next to Carrara, shot at the wrong targets and, among other things, hit the two fields that the Italian had previously left standing. As a result, nobody noticed the faux pas, and the 25-year-old escaped the two penalty minutes that were actually due.
Those responsible have already declared the competition over because the shooting process can no longer be checked. So the European title would have been a done deal. But for Carrara it is immediately clear that she does not want to accept the gold medal.
She and her trainer draw the jury’s attention to the mistake, the two minutes are added up and she drops back to 11th place.« I’m glad that the best athlete won in the end. That would never have been a real victory for me, »she tells the Italian portal «Fondo Italia». “Today fair play won.” (che)
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