Teen volunteer ‘inches’ from serious injury at discus event

A teenager can thank her lucky stars — and the quick reactions of a nearby Good Samaritan — that she wasn’t seriously injured when she was struck in the head by a discus on Friday morning at Terry Fox Athletic Facility.

The 14-year-old volunteer discus retriever at the Canadian track and field championships was in the field of play at Mooney’s Bay, according to Mathieu Gentès, Athletics Canada’s chief operating officer.

A nearby on-field official, seeing that the girl was about to be hit by the flying discus, called out a warning and pulled her away, the result being that she was dealt a glancing blow instead of something possibly much worse.

“And not that you ever want to get hit in the head with a discus,” Gentès said, “but it was a good thing that it was the junior women throwing the discus then, so it was a one-kilogram discus as opposed to a two-and-a-half-kilogram discus.”

The volunteer’s father, Norman Barton, disputed this version of events on Sunday, claiming his daughter was being led by an Athletics Canada official to the location where she was injured. Barton said he would like to see Athletics Canada do a better job of identifying potentially dangerous areas.

“A matter of inches and my daughter would be dead,” he said.

The event’s medical team responded, and given that the girl was hit in the head, paramedics were called and she was taken to the hospital, treated and released.

“She didn’t lose consciousness,” Barton said, “and she has no concussion.”

Gentès said the girl returned to the stadium on Saturday and resumed her volunteer duties.