The startling scene was recorded at the Princess Ekiden All-Japan Inter-Company Women's qualifying race in Japan's Fukoka Prefecture.
The athlete – Rei Iida -reportedly fractured her leg mid-way through a group marathon – with six runners taking on around 4.5 miles – only to crawl on bloodied knees to her end-point.
In the video, the runner can be seen running normally in the race before her accident.
She can then be seen crawling on all fours on the road with her knees bleeding as she makes her way to her waiting team-mate.
Iida grimaces as she crawls to her partner, before handing over the baton and being lifted to her feet.
She can be seen hobbling for a second only to slump back on the ground, visibly in agony.
Reports suggest Iida was crawling for between 200m and 300m.
Local media claimthe manager of the runner's team, Hisakazu Hirose, had heard the runner had fractured her leg and so withdrew the team from the race.
However, his decision to withdraw was not communicated to Iida before she began crawling.
The runner was reportedly taken to a hospital to be treated for the fracture and local media report her recovery is expected to take between three and four months.
Her team – Iwatani Co – have released a statement describing the incident as "very regrettable" and said they hope the organisation of the race is improved so that team manager's decisions are relayed quicker to the runners.
The 26.2-mile race was split into six legs and is run as a relay.
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