BIRMINGHAM – Zambian teenager Muzala Samukonga won his country’s first ever 400m title at the Commonwealth Games on Sunday.
Samukonga, 19, with a time of 44.66 seconds, left the stadium in a wheelchair after tripping over a low scoreboard as he ran to retrieve his national flag.
England’s Matthew Hudson-Smith, who won bronze at the World Championships last month, had to settle for silver.
The 27-year-old had pinned his hopes on gold but felt confident after recently admitting he had attempted suicide last year.
“It’s not the color I wanted, but you have to take the good with the bad,” he said. “If you had asked me a year ago if I could do it, I would have said ‘no’.”
The English athlete, seeing Samukonga crying on the podium during the awards ceremony, put his hand on his shoulder.
