Hopefully by now, most of you have heard of the “baton incident.” However, if you haven’t, here’s some background: A couple weeks ago, a track athlete in Virginia was charged with assault after striking another runner with a baton in the 4×200 meter relay, leading to a concussion. The athlete, Alaila Everett, then tried to publicly defend herself at a community rally following this event. She claimed that she lost her balance, and that Kaelan Tucker, the runner she hit, came too close to her when they were coming around the curve.
“She was touching me to the point where I was pumping my arm,” Everett says. “I lose my balance – my whole body turns, and then I pump my arms, so she got hit.” However, many, including Tucker and her family, believe that what happened wasn’t an accident at all, especially considering that Everett continued running after the hit and didn’t check on her. The coaches of IC Norcom High School, the team Alaila runs for, also didn’t check on her.
Now, here’s my opinion. As a track runner myself who has participated in relay races, I can confidently say that Alaia Everett did this on purpose, and this was 100% no accident. You can see from the pictures and videos and all the different angles captured that she was reaching and going out of her way to fully extend her arm. I think at the time, she knew exactly what she was doing and didn’t expect to get caught or receive any consequences for her actions.
She saw Kaelan pass her and felt threatened, so she had to eliminate her competition, but I do believe that whether she meant to hit her that hard or not can be up for debate. I also think that the fact she continued running the race after what she did speaks volumes and is evidence that it was intentional, because if she didn’t have a motive and it was a true accident, she would have at least stopped for a second to make sure she was okay.
Something that also adds to this is Alaila’s claim that she attempted to reach out to Kaelan on Instagram but discovered that she was blocked. “After the news on Wednesday, I thought, ‘Oh, she thinks this was on purpose,’ so I tried to follow her,” she states. “I was blocked.” I understand this perspective and that she’s trying to defend herself, but I still think that if she truly didn’t mean to do this and wasn’t so concerned with winning that she would deliberately injure an opponent, she would have immediately checked on her at the time of the incident or at least expressed some type of remorse.
Since the incident, Kaelan’s family has come out and said that they believe what happened was no accident and they’re still waiting for some sort of apology or even just an answer from anyone, like Alaila’s coach or family. “They were beside us at the event. They were watching the video at the event, but no one apologized or came to check on her,” the Tuckers said. “Even if it was a fluke or freak accident, you would still check on her.” To wrap up, I would like to say that I stand by the Tucker family and everything they’ve said regarding this incident and I’m still thinking of Kaelan at this time, and I hope she gets the justice she deserves.
