Hawkins collapses with gold in sight

CALLUM HAWKINS saw his gold medal bid end on a sun-scorched bridge too far in Australia.

The marathon runner was within sight of becoming the first Scot to win the title for 52 years when he collapsed with heat exhaustion.

Hawkins was leading by around two minutes when he started weaving at around the 24-mile mark and fell onto a grass verge.

The 25-year-old picked himself up but soon stumbled onto the grass again, where a spectator pushed him back onto the road.

Hawkins, who had been taking ice-hats at the water points to try to cool down in the 26C heat, managed to make it onto Sundale Bridge with just over a mile left.

But he banged into railings several times before finally falling and hitting his head on the metal barriers, though still trying to get back on his feet. He eventually collapsed on his back with several spectators taking pictures of his prone body before medical aid finally arrived around two minutes later.

Team-mate Steph Twell also rushed to help him before he was put into an ambulance.

Fellow Scot Robbie Simpson ran past Hawkins on his way to the bronze medal as Australia’s Michael Shelley retained the title.

Simpson said: “I really felt bad passing Callum lying on the ground like that. It was pretty horrible.

“I kind of look up to Callum and he has been a great help to me. To see someone like that, who I respect there – it was awful.

“I wanted to help him but there was assistance with him at the time and I don’t think there is anything I could have done. I wasn’t feeling great myself.

“It was a case of thinking, ‘I need to get to the line before the same thing happens and try and hold on to the bronze medal’.

“I’ve been in the same situation in the heat and I was hallucinating. Laying on the hot tarmac is so much worse. You have these feelings of the overwhelming heat, like being in an oven.

“What kept me going was moving and a bit of the breeze and then just getting straight into the recovery tent with ice and the cold drinks.”

Simpson, who ran 2:19:36, became the first Scot to win a marathon medal since Jim Alder took silver in Edinburgh in 1970. Alder is also the last to win the gold, having triumphed four years earlier in Kingston, Jamaica.

Shelley also passed Hawkins as he went on to win in 2:16.46 from Uganda’s Solomon Mutai.

The Australian said: “I wasn’t sure what was going on. I had a couple of mates around Main Beach who said Callum was in trouble.

“I thought they were just saying it to give me encouragement. I saw Callum and thought ‘Oh s***’ and just tried to hang on.

“Coming down the home straight I tried to accelerate but I was gone.” so much, just lying

To see him lying there was awful