IMO, Video shown on twitter is pretty clear he purposely knocked them all down and grabs the last one. Pretty crappy move
“The incident was strongly condemned by Olympic watchers who not only slammed the French runner for his disregard for “fair play” but also called it “the lowest thing” that they had ever seen in Olympics.”
Thoughts?
Article to Story
Link to video on Twitter
Low, but no lower than anyone using illegal doping.
I watched it live. One of the commentators was like “WTF”, while the other was trying to say that it could easily have been an accident in the stress of competition. Hmmm. Not many people who review it at leisure think it looked accidental. It looked like something he thought might cause disruption & a break in the pack behind him. It would not be fatal to anyone else’s run, but it could have thrown a number of them off their stride, and opened a gap, which at the pace they were going would be hard to bridge.
AFAIK most marathons have a general “unsportsmanlike conduct” prohibition which covers a bunch of non-specific actions like disrespectful behaviour towards officials or other competitors, with DQ as a potential consequence. I don’t know if the Olympic mary has the same - I would presume so. I think there should be an inquiry with a view to DQing him under such a provision.
Lifetime ban.
This seemed so crappy that you want to believe it was accidental. However this isn’t the first time a runner trashed the water table to put others at a disadvantage. I recall this being discussed in a thread years ago when a notorious poor sport did the same. So when I saw the French runner do it, well I didn’t give him the benefit of the doubt.
Lifetime ban.
X2
.
Lifetime ban.
X2
I don’t disagree that might be appropriate, but I’m a rule of law type.
Me first reaction was similar to others. But then I learned this was at km 30 with all the fatigue accumulated. The guy was seen grabbing bottles at other aid stations and sharing with other runners, many others had a hard time grabbing bottles and dropped them, including kipchoge, so I would give him the benefit of the doubt.
This seemed so crappy that you want to believe it was accidental.
Putting your hand out at pace and knocking over half a dozen bottles or so would be accidental. You’d then look and adjust your hand. He has his hand out and is knocking over bottles for 2 full seconds, then miraculously grabs the last one. Not accidental.
Besides being an a$$hole move, there is also a risk of someone in the pack stepping on a full bottle and falling.
Me first reaction was similar to others. But then I learned this was at km 30 with all the fatigue accumulated. The guy was seen grabbing bottles at other aid stations and sharing with other runners, many others had a hard time grabbing bottles and dropped them, including kipchoge, so I would give him the benefit of the doubt.
This was my feeling too. There was also a further aid station 30 m up the road. It does look intentional, but I’m inclined to think that he was just so fatigued he wasn’t in full control. He has also apologised and claimed it was accidental. Since he has no prior history of this kind of thing as best I am aware I think I believe him.
I didn’t think this dick move warranted a separate thread, so I posted it here.
In which km did that occur? In it was in the first half, no mercy…it is a DQ and ban for a year at least… If it was in the 2nd half, it might be (I repeat “might be”)something related to loss of conscience and motor control but he grabs the last bottle normally… simply surrealist
Not the first time this has happened.
https://forum.slowtwitch.com/forum/Slowtwitch_Forums_C1/Triathlon_Forum_F1/Meredith_Kessler_and_Heather_Wurtele_P5531207/
Exactly. Also there is a row of bottles immediately behind the row that got knocked over. If you watch any clip longer than 13 seconds there is another water table straight away.
Poor guy just had a moment and now everyone watches 13 seconds and condemns him.
I don’t agree that it’s clear. He looks as if he could be trying to grab the bottle in front of another runner and is struggling. Maybe we should give him the benefit of the doubt?
IMO, Video shown on twitter is pretty clear he purposely knocked them all down and grabs the last one. Pretty crappy move
“The incident was strongly condemned by Olympic watchers who not only slammed the French runner for his disregard for “fair play” but also called it “the lowest thing” that they had ever seen in Olympics.”
Thoughts?
Article to Story
Link to video on Twitter
It looks intentional but really hope it wasn’t. Hoping it was due to the conditions that caused a momentary lapse of reason or motor skills.
My first reaction was he should be DQ’d from watching the videos posted everywhere. It’s a good sign that he did apologize and also interesting that he was seen helping others at previous aid stations. I think we need to look at everything before making a final decision. If it was intentional then I’ll feel really sad about it. Is society moving downhill so fast that horrible behavior is creeping into Olympic marathons?
It’s also posted in slow motion so it looks worse than at full speed. I’m guessing most people on here would struggle trying to grab a small bottle 30k into the marathon running the pace they are. It’s not like a normal race with a hand up.
clearly intentional. my guess he had some kind of “argument” with some of the other guys some time before the aid station, and took revenge by knocking down the bottles
It’s also posted in slow motion so it looks worse than at full speed. I’m guessing most people on here would struggle trying to grab a small bottle 30k into the marathon running the pace they are. It’s not like a normal race with a hand up.
I agree with you that most people would struggle. But Olympians are not “most people” and literally everyone ahead of the guy does a perfect bottle grab.
I’m honestly even impressed how he managed to perfectly grab the last bottle in the row while knocking everything else over.