Drunk driver kills athlete during Costa Rica half-marathon

A Venezuelan competitor has passed on subsequent to being hit by an alcoholic driver while taking an interest in a half-marathon in the Costa Rican capital, San José. 

Police say the 26-year-old driver was tanked when he drove through a police cordon and hit the Venezuelan sprinter. The driver has been captured. 

The competitor, David Yáñez Pacheco, passed on minutes subsequent to being taken to healing facility. 

Race coordinators said they had taken all the essential precautionary measures however "there are things we can't control". 

In an announcement [in Spanish] distributed on Facebook, they said that 19 cops had been doled out to control activity and 90 individuals had been going about as marshals along the course. 

Witnesses say the driver surpassed a line of holding up autos and drove through a hindrance at the police cordon before hitting Mr Yáñez. 

He fled the scene however was captured a couple of hundred meters away. 

 

Saving for his son

Mr Yáñez, 35, was one of more than 1,300 sprinters partaking in the 21km race in San José. 

He had left his country due to the monetary emergency in Venezuela and was a piece of a gathering of Venezuelan competitors contending abroad, a companion said. 

Mr Yáñez had been remaining for as far back as four months at the home of Costa Rican Paralympian competitor Laurens Molina. 

Mr Molina said that the sprinter had disclosed to him he was wanting to come no less than second so he could send the $500 (£380) in prize cash to his 13-year-old child in Venezuela. 

"They prepare twice every day and are on edge to win since they require the cash to fabricate a superior future for themselves," Mr Molina said of the Venezuelan competitors contending in the race. 

Mr Molina said he and Venezuelan sprinter Angelo Olivo had not seen the mishap but rather had got stressed that their companion was never again running close by them. 

"At a certain point Olivo, the other Venezuelan sprinter said to me: 'Where's David? What happened to him?'," Mr Molina reviewed. 

Mr Olivo went ahead to win the men's race.