Olympics 2012 Athletics: American Manteo Mitchell ran 4 x 400m relay with ‘broken leg’ to help team qualify

London: American 400m relay runner Manteo Mitchell suffered a broken leg halfway into his lap during the heats at the London Games, but the setback didn’t stop him from running.

“I didn’t want to let those three guys down. So I just ran on it. It hurt so badly,” News.com.au quoted Mitchell, as saying. Mitchell was running first in the heat for an American team, which has won gold in the 4x 400 in every Olympics since 1976, bar their Moscow boycott. Doctors have confirmed Mitchell had broken his left fibula, but he managed to ignore the pain to help America qualify equal first for the final. “I got out pretty slow, but I picked it up and when I got to the 100m mark it felt weird,” Mitchell said. ANI