‘He had his penis out’: Athlete suffers mishap at World Championships
An Italian athlete dropped to last place in the 400 metres decathlon race at the 2022 World Athletics U20 Championships after suffering an embarrassing wardrobe malfunction.
Alberto Nonino began the race in Cali, Colombia strongly, overtaking two of his rivals on the bend. However, he slowed down noticeably in the final straight, grabbing his crotch as many as six times as his rivals surged past.
Nonino finished last in heat 2 with a time of 51.57 seconds.
Spanish sports journalist David Sanchez de Castro offered a graphic description of Nonino’s nightmare. “Last series of the 400 metres decathlon. The Italian Alberto Nonino in lane five begins very well but crosses the finishing line last. He had his penis out, literally,” he tweeted in Spanish.
“His penis escaped out of the side of his shorts and he had to hold it because it wasn’t allowing him to run properly which is normal when your dongle is swinging from side to side,” he added.
A clearly embarrassed Nonino pleaded with people not to send him viral clips of the incident. “I’m conscious it was obviously an accident and I’d like to tell you I’m aware of the reaction and you don’t need to send me the links to the blogs out there,” he wrote on Instagram.
“I’m trying to laugh about it now but immediately afterwards I felt terrible and I’m thankful to my friends and family for helping me get over what happened a few hours later.”
He also criticised the press. “The journalistic world worries about cases of bullying throughout Italy and around the world and then publishes these articles that for a more sensitive person could have done a lot of harm.”
Nonino eventually finished 15th in the decathlon with 7,054 points on Friday. Streaking ahead in first was Gabriel Emmanuel from the Netherlands with 7,860 points.
