LIMA, August 11, 2019 - When Juander Santos arrived at the final line, the other runners had already crossed it more than a minute ago. That is an eternity in the 400 meters hurdles competition. However, the public in the Lima Olympic Stadium stood up and applauded him for several minutes. He had been so close to winning the gold medal in Pan American Games Lima 2019, until he fell down.
Santos led the race the whole time, but he stumbled at the last hurdle and came down hard on the track, while the others competitors overtook him and passed the finish line. He stayed down on the running track for a few seconds in tears.
Then he stood up and slowly walked to the finishing line, with the public screaming words encouragement to him. Some of his rivals reached out to comfort him immediately. It was an emotional scene.
Still in shock, the Dominican runner did not want to talk with the media.
THE RESULTS
When Juander Santos crossed the final line, the time in the clock was 2:09.37, a longer time than the others seven runners. The winner of the gold medal was the Brazilian Alison Alves (48.45 seconds), the silver medal was for U.S. athlete Amere Lattin (48.98) and the bronze medal was for Jamaican runner Kemar Mowatt (49.09).
Between the fourth and sixth place we have Jeffery Gibson (49.53), Manue Ruggeri (49.55), Norman Jr. Grimes (49.65) and Leandro Zamora (50.29).
Before coming last in the final of the 400 meters hurdles, Juander Santos had been the first place in the semifinal, with his best time (49.44) of the season and above of the Brazilian Alison Alves, the gold medalist.
HIS BROTHER ALSO LOST
Juander ́s brother, Luguelin Santos, finished seventh in the men’s 400 meters, a disappointing result as he was not able to repeat his performance of Pan American Games Toronto 2015, when he won the gold medal.
The first place in this discipline went to the Colombian Anthony Zambrano, who crossed the finishing line at 44.83 seconds. Jamaican Denvo Gaye won the silver medal and U.S. Justin Robinson took the bronze.
