UK Athletics charged with Manslaughter

British prosecutors have charged the UK Athletics (UKA) and its former head of sport Keith Davies, over the death of Abdullah Hayayei in 2017 when the Paralympic athlete was training in London.

Hayayei, from the United Arab Emirates, was preparing for the 2017 World Paralympic Athletics Championships at the Newham Leisure Centre when a metal throwing cage fell on him in July 2017 and Doctors pronounced him dead the scene.

The 36-year-old athlete – who had made his debut in the javelin and shot put at the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro – was pronounced dead at the scene.

UK Athletics was on Wednesday charged with corporate manslaughter and an offence under the Health and Safety at Work Act, Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said in a statement.

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The CPS said the head of sport for the 2017 World Paralympic Athletics Championships, Davies was also charged, with gross negligence manslaughter and an offence under the Health and Safety at Work Act.

Both UK Athletics and Davies will appear at London’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Jan 31.

Hayayei, who was survived by five children, finished sixth in the javelin and seventh in the shot put when making his Paralympic debut at Rio 2016, the report added. At the 2015 athletics championship held in Doha, Hayayei finished fifth in the discus and eighth in the shot put and was hoping to make the London 2017 his second appearance at a World Championships.