Kate Kelland

WHEN London marathon medical director Sanjay Sharma was called to attend to someone who had collapsed with suspected cardiac arrest a mile from the finish line last month, he expected to find a man in his seventies.

“I had to hide my horror as I saw a young, athletic woman,” he says. “I had to . . . compose myself for a few seconds before we started resuscitation.”

Lying on the ground was 30-year-old Claire Squires, whose sudden death, along with those of Italian footballer Piermario Morosini and Norwegian Olympic swimmer Alexander Dale Oen, has drawn fresh attention to shocking heart problems that bring down young, fit people at the top of their game.

The case of English Premier League footballer Fabrice Muamba, who collapsed on the pitch in front of a stadium packed with spectators last month, has similarly focused minds.

Sharma, who was speaking at a sports science conference in London, ahead of the 2012 Olympic Games, where an estimated 10 000 athletes will be pushing themselves to the limit in the British capital, urged health professionals to be vigilant.

“Something should be done, if we are . . . encouraging athletes to push themselves like that,” he said.

“We protect their musculoskeletal system, we protect their brains, we protect their nutritional status, so why

Picture: GETTY IMAGES TRAGIC: Piermario Morosini in action during the Serie B match between Albinoleffe and Reggina at Stadio Atleti Azzurri d'italia in 2010, in Italy. He died after collapsing from cardiac arrest while playing in the Serie B league match between Pescara...