In a terrible goof-up in Japan, high school girl athletes in a 5,000 km walking race were given a hand sanitiser to drink instead of water which resulted in three of them being hospitalised.

One athlete is reported to have vomited and collapsed after drinking the sanitiser, while the two others spat it out.

The three athletes were reported to be recovering and a government inquiry has been ordered into the incident. 

According to an AFP report from Tokyo, competition organisers of the race held last weekend in central Japan's Yamanashi prefecture mistakenly poured the sanitiser into cups and placed them at a drinks station for athletes.

Yamanashi's high school sport federation said the sanitiser had been stored in an unlabelled plastic bottle alongside those containing drinking water in a cardboard box.

Alcohol-based hand sanitiser has become common worldwide as it is being used to check the spread of Covid-19.

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