MICHELLE JENNEKE has revealed she ran her repechage heat at the Paris Olympics with one hamstring.
The Australian hurdler was forced to go through another round in the women’s 100m hurdles after falling in her first heat.
Jenneke suffered a nasty fall after tripping over a hurdle in Wednesday’s race.
She returned to the track a day later for the repechage round, but again failed to advance after finishing last with a time of 13.86secs.
With her Olympics over, Jenneke revealed she had completed the race with a ruptured hamstring.
The 31-year-old told reporters in the mixed zone: “Honestly, firstly I’m really proud of myself.
“I ran today with one less hamstring than usual and obviously that was pretty difficult, but I said to the doctor, ‘Can I still run?’
“I didn’t want my Olympic campaign to end the way it was yesterday and I really just wanted to give it my all today.
“I knew that making that semi-final and running under 13 seconds missing one of your hamstrings is probably pretty impossible, but I wanted to prove to myself and the rest of Australia that I’ve got grit in me and I’m not going to give up easily.
“The general consensus was that it’s a full rupture so I can’t make that any worse, so provided I was still hurdling in a way that wasn’t jeopardising other parts of my body, if I wanted to race then I had the all-clear to do that.”
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Jenneke also confirmed she had been given the all clear by medics after they diagnosed her with a ruptured semitendinosus.
Despite the injury, though, she still pulled off her trademark pre-race jiggle.
She added: “Look, I am always going to have a good time when I’m racing, and the crowd out here is insane.
“I stood out there and I was soaking it all in and I was having a great time, despite everything that was going on with my body. I’m always going to do it because that’s what I do when I’m enjoying myself.”
The women’s 100m hurdles continues on Friday with the semi-finals before the final a day later.
