SAN JOSÉ – A Venezuelan athlete was killed by a drunk driver while he was participating in a half-marathon in the Costa Rican capital, San José, on Monday.
Police say the 26-year-old man drove through a police cordon and hit the Venezuelan runner before being arrested, the BBC reported.
The athlete, David Yáñez Pacheco, died moments after being taken to hospital.
Mexico’s Jonathan Paredes wins Red Bull Cliff Diving 2017 title in Chile
Yáñez, 35, was one of more than 1,300 runners taking part in the 21km race in San José.
He had left his homeland because of the economic crisis in Venezuela and was part of a group of Venezuelan athletes competing abroad.
Uruguay’s football caught between a rock and a hard place
Race organizers, in a statement [in Spanish] published on Facebook, said that 19 police officers had been assigned to regulate traffic and 90 people had been acting as marshals along the route.
