Accused of having struck an opponent in the middle of the race, an American athlete claims to have “lost his balance”

The images, shared on social networks, seem indeed at first glance eloquent. While they approach the last straight line of this lap, Alaila Everett, educated at the IC Norcom high school, is overtaken by Kaelen Tucker, student of first at the Brookville high school. Everett then brought him a blow to the back of the head with the stick which serves him as a witness in this relay. Sanded, his opponent stumbles and logically falls on the track, unable to finish his 200 m.

“I lost the balance,” defends the athlete

But Alaila Everett, who since says that he was targeted by racist insults and death threats, refutes having voluntarily wanted to strike her opponent. She explains that she was unbalanced. “You are based on a single angle,” she said on the camera in Wavy-Tv, a local television. My witness stuck behind his back (…). I lost my balance and when I wanted to replace my arm, it was touched. I know my intentions and I will never hit someone voluntarily. »»

Despite the shock, Kaelen Tucker expressed himself just after the competition, while the judges had disqualified his opponent’s team. “I still can’t believe it, I am in shock,” said the victim to the microphone of ABC 13 before telling the scene. When we arrived at the turn, she kept banging my arm and when we got out of the turn, I finally exceeded her and it was then that she struck me with the stick. ” Following this blow, Tucker had been taken care of for a concussion and a possible fracture of the skull.