Te Anau race walker Lesley Cantwell is in a critical condition in a Tahitian hospital after collapsing at the Oceania track and field championships yesterday.
Cantwell (26) felt good after winning the 5000m walk in a personal best time of 25min 39sec but collapsed when walking to the podium for the victory ceremony.
''Lesley had a swelling of the brain and is on life support and they are just waiting for us to get over there to make some decisions,'' her father, Shaun Cantwell, said from Te Anau.
Tahiti has top class medical facilities, but an operation to release pressure on the brain was not considered.
''She deteriorated so fast and when Lesley got to the hospital it had already gone past what they thought they could do,'' Shaun said.
Shaun Cantwell, his wife, Jude, son Andrew (16) and Lesley's 3-year-old daughter fly out of Invercargill this morning and expect to arrive in Tahiti tonight.
Two other siblings, Ashley and Nicholas, are students at the University of Otago.
After hearing the news, Shaun consulted medical experts in New Zealand and overseas to find out what happened.
''They don't know what caused it. They are talking about a small rupture in the spine, because they have detected blood in the spinal cord,'' he said.
''It is extremely unusual and is a one in a million thing. It could be completely unrelated to her race.''
Lesley is a member of the New Zealand track and field team competing at the Oceania championships in Papeete.
She won the race convincingly, beating her personal best time by 1min 40sec.
The event was held in temperatures of 29degC and most of the other competitors performed well below their best.
''Lesley felt good and looked good after the race. There was no major distress,'' her father said.
''She was well conditioned for the race and raced within her capabilities.''
Cantwell had suffered from heat distress when she raced for New Zealand in Tasmania. She learnt from that and took precautions during training in Te Anau.
''The heat wasn't a factor,'' Shaun Cantwell said.
''When she did collapse they took her temperature and it was 36degC, which was under the normal of 37degC.''
Cantwell wore an ice jacket in the warm up and put on cooling clothes after the race for her warm down and drank water and ate the normal recovery food.
''It was only when she was going up for the medal ceremony that she collapsed,'' Shaun said.
Cantwell's mother, Jude Cantwell, was a top runner and won the New Zealand senior women's 1500m title in 1989. Shaun, the deputy principal at Fiordland College and a leading athletics coach, praised Athletics New Zealand and Internal Affairs for their support.
The other 50 athletes in the New Zealand team have decided to continue in the championships and will wear arm bands and compete with Cantwell's number written on their arms.
