Australian athlete Sienna Newton is ruing a wardrobe malfunction after finishing fifth in the women’s T38 long jump at the Commonwealth Games.
Newton jumped a personal best 4.70 metres on her fifth attempt and was gunning for something even better in the sixth round — only for her pants to get in the way.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Para-athlete battles wardrobe malfunction mid-competition
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The 19-year-old brain cancer survivor, who has no feeling in her left hand, had officials and teammates trying to help strip her tracksuit off as the countdown clock ticked away.
Newton cut a panicked figure as they struggled to get the pants over her spikes before eventually resorting to ripping them off.
There were less than 10 seconds when she eventually got them off and sprung into her run-up, and she did make it to the line in time, but didn’t go through with the jump, having not even started from her normal marker.
“Definitely not how I imagined my Commonwealth Games debut would go,” Newton wrote on social media afterwards.
“And yes, if you tuned in, you would’ve seen the chaos that was my last jump. Ironically, I think that was the most airtime the T38 long jump got all day. 😂
“Yep, it was my pants. They’re now officially ripped, so if @valoursport has a spare pair lying around, let me know.
Sienna Newton struggling to get her pants off. Credit: Channel 7
“On the bright side, I jumped a new PB of 4.70m on my fifth attempt. Unfortunately, I never got to take a proper sixth jump.
“Between the countdown clock and trying to wrestle off a pair of pants with a left hand that I can’t feel, it wasn’t exactly an easy task.”
The British commentary team acknowledged that it can be harder at times for para athletes to abide by the same rules as non-para athletes, as they have to in this case, given their impairments.
But they added: “There is unfortunately a little bit of naivety in there as well.
“They know their jump is coming. They would be expected to be stripped down, waiting on the back of the runway, ready to go. So she’ll be frustrated with herself there.”
In her post, Newton explained she had been trying to get the pants off for longer than what the broadcast showed.
“And just to clear up the commentary at the end of the video about me needing to be ready to jump, I had actually started trying to get the pants off two jumps earlier,” she said.
“It just didn’t quite go to plan. And looking back at the video, I don’t even think I went off my run-up mark. 😂
“As it turns out, according to the rule book, I should have been allowed another jump under protest. So who knows what that last jump could have been.
“A huge shoutout to my fellow competitors for jumping in and helping me get the pants off. Thank you as well to my coach and my family. I wouldn’t be here without your support.
“A PB, a pair of ripped pants, and a story I’ll never live down. That’s sport.”
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