Commonwealth Games organizers were "heavily criticised for the lack of medical attention" given to Scotland’s Callum Hawkins after he collapsed when in the lead of the men’s marathon on Sunday, according to Ben Bloom of the London TELEGRAPH. Hawkins had built a lead of more than two minutes with just a mile and a half remaining "when he wobbled alarmingly and collapsed onto the road in brutally hot conditions." He "struggled back to his feet and managed to continue" for another 100m, but then fell again. As spectators "took photos of him lying distressed on the road," it took several minutes for medical attention to arrive. When it "finally did," the paramedic "waited some time before helping him." Hawkins was "eventually put on a stretcher and taken by ambulance to hospital, where he was due to remain overnight." Many of Hawkins’ Scottish teammates "reacted angrily" to the lack of medical attention given to Hawkins, while BBC Sport commentator Steve Cram called it a “disgrace.” Paula Radcliffe said that there were “big questions” for Commonwealth Games organizers. Gold Coast CEO Mark Peters defended the response of his team and said that medical staff "were posted at 500m intervals in the closing stages of the course." He said, "We can't have medical people on every corner of the road. They are in professional positions, the same as our Gold Coast marathon when we had 30,000 people" (TELEGRAPH, 4/15). In London, Martha Kelner reported former middle distance runner Cram said, "This is a guy in real distress and someone needs to recognize it for his health at this point. Where on earth is the help?" Peters said, "I was also concerned about the behavior of a small number of bystanders who chose to take images. This is not in keeping with the spirit of Gold Coast 2018" (GUARDIAN, 4/15).
