Stray cameraman almost causes pile up when he strays onto running track at World Athletics Championships

If you’ve only got one job to do then you’d better do it, no matter what obstacles get in your way. Like 20 odd runners for example. This cameraman at the World Athletics Championships was so engrossed in the event he was filming that he didn’t notice that he’d wandered onto the main running track.

Spectators watched open-mouthed as the oblivious cameraman stood on the track, back to the oncoming runners. As the gap closed, witnesses could only watch helpless wondering what was going to happen.

Fortunately, the runners in the men’s 3000m Steeplechase race managed to avoid a pile-up by deftly swerving past the cameraman. Some of the competitors shouted at him to move out of the way, however, he stood his ground.

It turned out that the cameraman was attempting to film the nearby women’s triple jump final. However, he was not made aware of the race around him by his broadcasting team.

Speaking after the race, US runner Evan Jager, who moved on to the cameraman’s right shoulder to avoid him, said: ‘I was a little worried that he was going to dart one way or another, right at the last second, but thankfully he didn’t realize we were there until we all passed him.’

Steeplechase competitors have to jump obstacles during the race. It includes several barriers and water to jump. Obviously, an errant cameraman didn’t phase them. People quipped on Twitter that he had merely “become the 29th barrier”.

Still, at least nobody was injured. It’s not the first time a cameraman has got in the way of an athlete. In 2015 runner Usain Bolt was involved in a collision with a cameraman on a segway.

You really do need eyes in the back of your head when you’re filming. You can get so engrossed in what you’re doing you might be unaware of other dangers, or oncoming runners.