Jess Warner-Judd has revealed she suffered a mid-race seizure at the European Championships on Tuesday and has since been provisionally diagnosed with a form of epilepsy.
In an update shared to her personal Instagram account, the Blackburn Harrier - who competed at the Tokyo 2020 Games - said she was competing in the 10,000m in Rome when she suffered a seizure with 600m to go and did not complete the race.
Warner-Judd then suffered a second seizure in the event’s medical centre before she was sedated and taken to a hospital, where she was kept overnight.
The 29-year-old, who had also experienced a seizure at an event earlier this year, wrote: “I don’t remember much about the race apart from that I got a similar feeling (to the previous seizure).
“Around 3k in, my head felt incredibly tight and I knew something was wrong. I stubbornly persevered despite everyone telling me to stop!
“With 600m to go, I suffered a seizure, and when taken to the medical centre suffered a further seizure and so was sedated and taken to hospital where I spent the night.
“It has been an incredibly tough couple of months and has culminated in me being provisionally diagnosed with focal epilepsy.
“I’m not sure what the future holds at the minute, I just wanted to be honest as I realise I’ve been pretty quiet on social media and for anyone in the stadium Tuesday night it was quite traumatic to see.
Warner-Judd is a four-time British champion – twice in the 5000m and twice in double that distance – who was hoping to qualify for this summer’s Olympics in Paris.
In her post, Warner-Judd also revealed she experienced a seizure earlier this year at Sound Running’s The Ten event in California, where she said her head felt “like it was going to explode and that’s the last thing I remember!
“I came around to (husband and fellow Blackburn Harrier) Rob (Warner-Judd) obviously in distress. I’d had a seizure and it was incredibly scary for everyone.”
A series of tests, however, came back normal, and, after withdrawing from the world cross-country championships, she said, “things did seem to be getting better and we thought maybe it was a rogue one-off thing.”
Warner-Judd went onto compete in two more events without a seizure.
She added: “Thank you to all at British Athletics-(doctors, physios, team staff), my agent Caroline, my family and my friends for helping me through these last couple of months. I’m not sure what my year will look like, but I’m eager not to let this stop me. As Arnie says, I will be back.”
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