Hit-and-run victim vows to make it to Olympics
‘You will all see,’ Tigist Bito says, vowing to run soon. ‘In four years, I’ll be representing Israel in Rio’
Tigist Bito, the 15-year-old athlete and Olympic hopeful who was moderately injured on Friday night when the driver of an ATV struck her and her friend Radait Baltat, is recovering and expected to soon go home from the hospital.
“I will get to the Olympics. You will all see. In four years I’ll be representing Israel in Rio,” Bito said Monday, according to Yedioth Ahronoth.
Bito and Balta were training with other young Israeli athletes near Kibbutz Givat Brenner in central Israel when the incident occurred.
Her doctor said she suffered a broken leg and injuries to her face and body.
“I understood that my leg was injured and I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to run. The moment the doctors told me that it will be okay and that in half a year I’ll return to running, I was very happy,” the report quoted her as saying.
The driver, who fled the scene after hitting the girls, has not been apprehended.
Bito said that she couldn’t understand how someone in an ATV could deliberately run over her and her friend. She said that the driver had attempted to murder them and she asked the Israel Police to do all in their power to catch the offender.
Bito competed in the World Schools Athletics Championships in Malta earlier this year and was a rising long-distance star for Israel’s squad for the 2016 Olympics in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. Israel placed 15th overall in the Malta cross country competition.
Ilan Ben-Zion and Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
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