In the long, painful annals of Israeli blunders on the international sporting stage, runner Lonah Chemtai Salpeter's mistake at the European Athletics Championships in Berlin on Sunday ranks high – and may have cost her a medal.
On Sunday, Salpeter, a gifted athlete by all accounts, paused while running in her 5,000-meter race after apparently miscounting the number of laps and thinking the race was over.
She had been running in second place, right on the heels of leader Sifan Hassan from the Netherlands, when she veered off course and slowed. She quickly realized her mistake, but by then the trailing pack of runners had already closed the gap.
Salpeter managed to regain her composure and finished the race in fourth place. Upon crossing the finish line, she collapsed to the ground in tears.
Despite the catastrophic pause, her time of 15:01 still managed to set a new Israeli record.
After the race, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised Salpeter on Twitter, writing: "Lonah Chemtai, you are a true star! You have brought great honor to our country."
On Thursday, Kenyan-born Salpeter won the 10,000-meter race. Her victory marked the first time that Israel took a gold medal at the championships.
