A day after being bitten by a stray dog during training at the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium, the venue of the ongoing World Para Athletics Championships, Kenyan coach Dennis Maragia spoke about the incident and claimed that the necessary measures are yet to be taken.
In what turned out to be an embarrassing moment for the organisers, stray dogs bit coaches from Kenya and Japan on Friday in separate incidents on Friday.
Both the coaches were given timely treatment and were out of danger. Maragia was talking to one of the athletes outside the competition area at the venue when he was attacked by the dog. Speaking to PTI, the Kenyan coach said that he was fine at the moment after getting injections and being rushed to the hospital.
Maragia recalled the incident, saying he was doing practice and hadn’t noticed the dog sneak up behind and bite him.
“After being bitten by the dog, I was rushed to the hospital. I got injected, and now I am fine,” Maragia said.
“We were doing a warm-up and practice. I didn’t notice the dog because it came from behind, but I felt something holding my leg – it was painful. It was a dog holding my leg.”
‘Just saw a dog passing by’
Maragia said that despite what happened on Friday, the dogs haven’t been moved and he saw one of them pass by. The Kenyan coach said that he has been scared after the incident and cannot head back home as he has to take medications.
“Even after what happened yesterday, I don’t feel any measures have been taken or the dogs have been moved. I just saw a dog passing by,” he said.
“I requested them to move the dogs. I couldn’t go back to Kenya; I had to take medications. You are in fear once something like that happens to you – you have to have that fear,” he added.
The organisers stated that two dog-catching teams have been permanently deployed at the venue after the incident in collaboration with the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD).