Belarus' Volha Mazuronak won marathon gold at this afternoon's European Championships. In doing so, she had to overcome some of the most baffling odds.
Suffering a serious nosebleed, and getting lost on her way to the finish line, the problems started very quickly for the 29-year-old.
After starting the race looking comfortable enough, Mazuronak was all of a sudden covered in what the Eurosport commentator accurately likened to 'red paint.'
However, just one helluva of a nosebleed, Mazuronak nevertheless had to contend with running a marathon while covered in a copious amount of her own blood.
Eventually able to clean herself up with a sponge at one of the race's water stations, that wasn't even the end of her problems.
The athlete who had come 5th at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games looked to have the race sewn up, with her nearest competitor a seemingly significant lead on France's Clemence Calvin, made a wrong turn.
Realising her mistake in enough time to rectify it, Mazuronak's winning time of 2hr 26min 22sec was only six seconds clear of the second-placed French athlete.
You can watch this strange event from the European Championships play out below.
Two horror nosebleeds: ✅
Got lost: ✅
Still won: 🥇 pic.twitter.com/UnFh26CjHt— Eurosport (@eurosport) August 12, 2018
