LONDON — A years-long legal investigation into the tragic 2017 on-site training death of Paralympian Abdullah Hayayie has concluded with UK Athletics, the national governing body for British track and field, receiving a £350,000 ($471,000) fine following its guilty plea to a corporate manslaughter charge.
The fatal incident unfolded on July 11, 2017, at east London’s Newham Leisure Centre, where 36-year-old Hayayei was putting the final touches on his training ahead of competing for the United Arab Emirates in an upcoming international para athletics competition. During a training session, a section of a metal throwing practice cage collapsed, and a heavy metal pole struck Hayayei in the head, causing fatal injuries.
Announcing the sentence during a hearing at London’s Central Criminal Court on Tuesday, Judge Richard Marks emphasized that Hayayei’s death was a preventable tragedy. Calling the incident “tragic, untimely and wholly avoidable”, Marks noted that this fatal accident was an event that had long been a foreseeable risk.
Alongside the penalty for UK Athletics, 79-year-old Keith Davies — the former head of sport for the 2017 World Para Athletics Championships hosted in London — was sentenced to 175 hours of unpaid community work after pleading guilty to a breach of health and safety regulations. A retired physical education teacher, Davies either had direct knowledge of structural flaws with the training cage or should have discovered the hazards ahead of the incident, according to the judge. Marks added that an identical throwing cage at the same venue had collapsed previously, meaning the risks were already documented before Hayayei was killed.
“This was an accident which sooner or later was waiting to happen,” the judge told the court.
A veteran competitor who had already earned a spot among the world’s top para athletes, Hayayei had competed at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Paralympics just one year before his death, where he finished sixth in the men’s javelin event and seventh in the men’s shot put competition. The 200-kilogram (440-pound) cage that collapsed is a standard piece of throwing training infrastructure, constructed from metal poles and protective netting designed to contain stray throws from shot putters and other throwing event athletes and protect bystanders from injury.