UK Athletics fined over Emirati Paralympian’s ‘avoidable’ death

LONDON: UK Athletics has been fined £350,000 ($472,000) over the “wholly avoidable” death of a Paralympian who was killed when equipment fell on him at a training center in London in 2017.
Abdullah Hayayei, 36, was killed while preparing for the World Para Athletics Championships, which took place in July of that year.
A 5-foot-high (152-centimeter) metal cage toppled over because it was put up incorrectly and without its base plate, in an “accident waiting to happen,” the London court heard.
UK Athletics Ltd. pleaded guilty to corporate manslaughter and on Tuesday was fined £350,000, plus £44,000 in costs, to be paid over six years.
Keith Davies, 79, who was head of sport for the championships, admitted a health and safety charge and was handed a community order of 175 hours of unpaid work.
Sentencing at the Old Bailey, Judge Richard Marks said that the death of Hayayei, who represented the United Arab Emirates, was “tragic, untimely and wholly avoidable.”
The judge noted that failings by UK Athletics were not a “one off” but said that any financial penalty would weaken its ability to support individual athletes and athletics in the community.
Wheelchair user Hayayei, who had cerebral palsy, had been due to compete in the shot-put event at the championships in London.
Hayayei’s widow, Badriah, who attended court by video link from the UAE, previously described the impact his death has had on herself and her five children.