This relay runner was concussed after being hit with a baton. Her opponent says it was an accident

A Virginia high school runner suffered a concussion when another runner struck her in the head with her baton during a relay race last week.

“I was so in disbelief, I didn’t even know what had happened,” Kaelen Tucker told local media in Virginia, describing how the usual “bumping arms” in races gave way to something else during the indoor high school league meeting. “I got hit in the head and I just fell off the track.”

Alaila Everettand her relay team were immediately disqualified. Everett, who maintained she did not mean to hit her rival, said she had been unfairly targeted after video of the race was shared virally.

“It’s like they are going off of one angle,” Everett told a local TV station. “They are assuming my character, calling me ghetto and racial slurs, death threats … all of this off of a nine-second video.”

Everett said she had tangled arms with Tucker and as she attempted to regain her balance, the baton accidentally hit her opponent.

“After a couple times of hitting her with my baton, I got stuck behind her back and [the baton] rolled up her back,” Everett said. “I lost my balance, and when I pumped my arms again, she got hit. I know my intentions and I would never hit somebody on purpose.”

A Facebook video that has since been taken down shows Tucker closing in on Everett in the second leg of the heat. The two were jockeying for position when Everett appeared to raise her baton and strike Tucker, who dropped her baton and grabbed the back of her head as she fell toward the infield.

Tucker said that after symptoms developed, she sought medical treatment and a doctor told her she had a concussion and possible skull fracture.

Tucker’s mother and team trainers immediately rushed to her side as the race continued, with Everitt’s team disqualified for “contact interference.”