Runner finishes last in 400m sprint after his 'penis comes out in the middle of the race'

A runner was left with his head in his hands and *something* hanging out of his shorts when he completed his race at the 2022 World Athletics U20 Championships.

Italy's Alberto Nonino was going for glory in the 400m race but during the unforgiving decathlon event, onlookers saw more than they bargained for.

Hosted in Cali, Colombia, the comp consists of 10 events; A 100m sprint, long jump, shot-put, high jump, 400m run, 110m hurdles, discus, pole vault, javelin, and a 1,500m run.

It's a gruelling event, and you'd be worried about sustaining an injury or becoming exhausted given that all ten events have to be fit into two days.

But this competitor had a unique problem to deal with mid-race... take a look:

Starting in the middle lane, the athlete got off to a great start, but it didn't take long for viewers to notice that he had started to move a bit oddly, using his hand to adjust his shorts.

Well, it turns out that Nonino's penis had come out, with sports journalist David Sanchez de Castro making a bold observation of the incident.

The reporter explained: "Perhaps I’ve explained myself poorly. His penis escaped out of the side of his shorts and he had to hold it because it wasn’t allowing him to run properly which is normal when your dongle is swinging from side to side."

The athlete desperately tried to rectify the issue as his legs pounded the pavement, however it seems like nothing worked.

Despite being close to the front of the pack at the beginning of the race, he fell to the back by the time the running group rounded the final corner for the final sprint.

He finished last with a time of 51.57 seconds, with the clip going viral for all the wrong reasons.

While it might not have been the moment he hoped to attract headlines for, he chose to look on the bright side.

Nonino had a nightmare mid-race when his penis fell out (Pedro Vilela/Getty Images)

Nonino took to Instagram to send a message to his fans following the blunder.

"I just want to talk to you a little bit about the rumpus there’s been on blogs and social media in general," he said at the time.

"I’m conscious it was obviously an accident and I’d like to tell you I’m aware of the reaction and you don’t need to send me the links to the blogs out there.

"I’m trying to laugh about it now but immediately afterwards I felt terrible and I’m thankful to my friends and family for helping me get over what happened a few hours later."

The sportsman said it's lucky he's a resilient person as this type of incident could have been devastating to someone else.

"The journalistic world worries about cases of bullying throughout Italy and around the world and then publishes these articles that for a more sensitive person could have done a lot of harm," he added, according to the Daily Star.