Ryan McLeod has been rushed to the Leicester Royal Infirmary after becoming trapped in his new altitude tent. The Tipton Harrier “couldn’t find the zip” having spent most of the day in conditions equivalent to an altitude 25,000 feet. McLeod was forced to take a knife to the expensive tent and dialled 999 after failing to get his breath back. Hospital officials have confirmed that a 25 year-old was treated for altitude sickness, but refused to elaborate citing patient confidentiality.
A spokesman for Loughborough Sport lamented McLeod’s “idiotic conduct” stating that the tent was not designed for such high altitude settings. “You wouldn’t open the door of a jumbo jet,” thundered George Gandy’s private secretary, “so why on earth did McLeod think he could spend his whole day at such a stupid altitude?”
A source close to McLeod revealed that the 7:52 3k man thought such a high altitude would have “added training impact” and was seeking to bring about a state of mild hypoxia. “He reasoned that the Kenyans lived high and so he should play Call of Duty even higher,” said the insider, “it only went wrong because he forgot where the zip was. It can be confusing in there you know. It could have happened to anyone.”
It is unlikely that UKA and Loughborough officials will be looking too kindly on the error as the tent has now been rendered effectively useless. After McLeod broke an Alter-G treadmill earlier in the year, it could be a while before he is allowed near any state of the art technology again. It is not yet clear whether he had had his full UKA induction (which takes a week and involves three hour exam at the end), but onlookers have said that it would be unlikely that he would have made such an error if full training had been undertaken. “They go through the whole system,” said an insider, “it really is fool-proof.”