Will of steel! Japan teen continues in race after breaking leg

Tokyo, Nov 21: It's not over till it's over. A young Japanese woman recently left the world startled by crawling more than 200 metres in a long-distance relay after breaking her leg while running. Her refusal to leave the tracks despite the injury saw her being hailed as a hero.

Nineteen-year-old Rei Iida was nearing the end of her 3.5 kilometre stretch in the Iwatani Sangyo relay marathon in Fukuka Prefecture when she fell and fractured her tibia badly. But she refused to retire and stopped only after finishing her race with help of her hands and knees. The rough pavement left her in a lot of blood but her steel-hard determination was unaffected.

Iida stopped only after tagging the next runner who was visibly emotional seeing the former's state but did not forget to continue with the run. Iida took five minutes while crawling to reach her partner, Japanese masthead Mainichi reported.

Though the footage of the race was broadcast in Japan in October, it went viral only recently after it was shared on Twitter.

However, the authorities were also questioned whether they should have stopped the 19-year-old for her injury could have aggravated. "I struggled to decide whether I should stop her, but I felt she could do it as she was almost at her goal," the race's head judge was quoted by The Telegraph, UK.

Doctors said Iida's injury could take up to four months to heal.