It was tough luck for the Philippines in triathlon on the morning of the opening ceremony of the Asian Youth Games as Euan Arrow Ramos crashed out of the competition on Thursday at Sofitel Bahrain.

Ramos suffered scratches and bruises all over, including his right arm and leg, after hitting the deck when his wheel clipped a cateye on a tight turn in the race featuring 39 triathletes.

The 15-year-old Ramos came out of the water in ninth place and had closed in on the leaders during the bike stage when he apparently ran over a reflective road stud and crashed.

He was brought to Bahrain Defense Force Hospital.

The cones had to be moved after several incidents, which slightly altered the course, but Triathlon Association of the Philippines secretary general Ting Joson said they can’t blame the results on these things.

“It was unfortunate because Arrow is strong and the boys prepared well. It’s unfortunate that there’s a cateye there,” Joson said. 

“Even if they changed the course on the fly, it’s still the prerogative of the officials if they feel that there’s a safer way to do it. As a technical official, they should be anticipating those kinds of accidents and avoid that from happening again.”

Compounding the Philippines’ woes was Peter Sancho del Rosario losing his 12th spot, ending up disqualified after an infraction at the second transition when he started removing his headgear before setting his bike on the rack.