Team GB star thought he lost his eye in freak accident during Olympics swim
Don’t miss a thing by getting the Daily Star’s biggest headlines straight to your inbox!
A Team GB star thought that he lost his eye in a freak accident during the Tokyo marathon swim.
Long distance swimmer Hector Pardoe's hopes of Olympic glory was brought to an end with two kilometres still to race.
He begged lifeguards around the event to check his right eye because he could not see out of it – leaving him fearing the worst.
Pardoe later showed off the damage on camera and was left with a significant black eye, horrendously bloodshot pupil and cuts around the eyelid.
He told the BBC: “On the last lap, I took an elbow to the face – I thought I had lost the eye. My goggles completely came off.
“Normally, I like to think whenever I get an injury I'd be able to finish the race, but the goggles completely fell off and I couldn't even get them.
“I couldn't see anything – I thought my eye had fallen out into the water, and I was going up to the lifeguards saying, 'My eye, my eye – is it OK?'
“They weren't giving me a very decisive opinion. I had to get out after that.”
Commentator Andy Jameson, also a former swimmer, posted a close up image of Pardoe's injuries on his Twitter account.
He wrote on Twitter: "Utterly brutal … Great Britain's @hector_pardoe had to withdraw from the men's Olympic Marathon Swim (10k Open Water) very close to the end after receiving a forearm smash to the eye socket!
Has this Olympics been a success for Team GB? Let us know in the comments section.
"Nasty … especially considering he had swimming goggles on! Great effort up 'til then!"
The conditions for the marathon swim were brutal due to the scorching heat in Tokyo, despite is being early morning.
However, Germany's Florian Wellbrook overcame the conditions to win in 1hr 48min 33sec, 25 seconds ahead of Hungary's Kristof Rasovsky and Italian Gregorio Paltrinieri.
- Olympics
Source: Read Full Article