Sprinter who whacked rival on head with baton denies doing it deliberately in tearful interview

The teenager who smacked her rival with a baton during a race insists she did not hit her ‘on purpose’.

Alaila Everett, who competed in the 4x200m girls relay final for I.C. Norcom High School in Virginia, sparked widespread fury after a clip of her striking Brookville High School junior Kaelen Tucker in the back of the head went viral.

Everett had just been overtaken by Tucker on the outside before the shocking incident unfolded.

Tucker stumbled off the track and fell to the ground clutching her head.

Judges at the event, held at Liberty University, immediately spotted the foul play and disqualified Norcom from the race on the spot for ‘contact interference’.

Tucker, who was treated by doctors for a concussion and potential skull fracture, stated she never got an apology from Everett or any of the Norcom athletes and coaches.

The Brookville athlete also felt Everett’s actions weren’t an accident.

An emotional Everett has now hit back at her critics in an interview with WAVY TV 10.

“Everybody has feelings, so you’re physically hurt, but you are not thinking about my mental, right?” Everett said.

“They are going off of one angle.

“They’re assaulting my character, calling me ghetto, racist slurs, death threats, all of this, just because of a nine second video.”

Everett also insisted she would never hit an opponent ‘on purpose’.

WAVY TV 10

Everett was visibly emotional as she explained her side of the story[/caption]

“After a couple times of hitting her with my baton, I got stuck behind her back like this, and it rolled up her back,” Everett said.

“I lost my balance, and when I pumped my arms again, she got hit.

“I know my intentions, and I would never hit somebody on purpose.”

In the WAVY TV 10 interview, the Everett family allege they have been served with court papers.

“Now we have to go to a city, three hours away, that everybody hates our guts,” father Genoa Everett said.

Norcom student Everett claimed she had reached out to Tucker to apologise, but has found herself blocked on social media.

WAVY TV 10

Everett’s parents revealed they had been served with court papers from Tucker’s family[/caption]

Zeketa Cost, Everett’s mother, also weighed in on the fallout that has come from the viral video.

“I didn’t have to see a first video, second video or tenth video… I know 100 per cent that she would never do that to nobody,” Cost said.