Spain’s Laura Garcia-Caro lost out on a bronze medal at the European Athletics Championships in Rome due to an untimely celebration.

Garcia-Caro, who had never won a major championship medal before, was so confident of her third-place finish that she grabbed a Spanish flag and started celebrating early, sticking out her tongue and pumping her fist. Unbeknownst to her, Ukraine’s Lyudmyla Olyanovska was quickly closing the gap behind her.

Despite the big screen in the stadium showing the race, Garcia-Caro remained oblivious to Olyanovska’s charge. It was only in the final metres that she realised her mistake as Olyanovska surged past her right at the end of the 20km race.

Though they were given identical finishing times of 1:28:48, the look of horror on Garcia-Caro’s face told the story. Olyanovska, who has served a four-year doping ban in the past, had previously won bronze at the World Championships in 2015 and silver at the European Championships in 2014.

“I am quite disappointed. The first part of the race I suffered, but (I did) recover and in the last 10 metres I thought I had it, but I didn’t,” the 29-year-old told local media, according to Reuters, adding: “Now I have to assimilate [what happened] and heal my heart.”

Olyanovska, a silver medalist at the European Championships 10 years ago, later dedicated the medal to Ukraine.