“The pendulum gave way, we saw the ball go over the hedge and then we heard a woman screaming very loudly.” That’s what a visitor from Geldrop saw when it all went wrong on Sunday during the open Dutch Highland Games championships in that place. A 65-year-old man walking behind the hedge was hit by the metal ball and died.
“It was not a spectator,” explains the visitor. The victim walked behind a hedge in one of the gardens at Geldrop Castle. Not on the site where the event was held. “It’s next to those gardens,” she explains. “So he didn’t see the ball coming at all.”
“It went wrong during the hammer throw (editors – in official terms Hammer Throw) where a bullet is thrown from a stick. Bullets that weigh 16 pounds, it was explained earlier.”
CPR
According to her, there were several dozen spectators present at the time. “When things went wrong, some people from the organization immediately ran to the victim. They started CPR.”
Another visitor to the event also saw the fatal accident happen. The victim walked through one of the castle gardens and was not a visitor to the event, she also says. “That one was on the other side of the hedge. That metal bullet flew over it. The victim did not see this coming. I saw how that person was hit and immediately fell down. And soon that person had to be resuscitated.”
‘No pants’
“We were not allowed to stand where that ball eventually landed,” explains another visitor. “But people could walk behind the hedge. At the bottom it was open, so we could see their feet and pushchairs, which they walked by. We were surprised about that beforehand. The boy who was swinging the ball was completely upset. He was not a little boy, but a real topper, who had previously participated in major competitions.”
After the air ambulance landed, everyone from the police had to leave the field where the event was held.
In this video you can see what the Hammer Throw part at the Highland Games looks like. The images are illustrative and not of the event in Geldrop on Sunday: