Olympic Marathon Runner Who Knocked Over Water Bottles Defends His Actions

The Olympic runner who knocked over an entire row of water bottles mid-race has defended his actions.

Morhad Amdouni was heavily criticised after footage emerged of him tipping over a row of drinks during the marathon at the games in Tokyo yesterday (8 August).

In a brief clip shared on social media, a pack of runners can be seen passing one of the many and much-needed water stations along the route.

At first, nothing appears to be wrong, that is until Amdouni pops up and completely wipes out an entire line of bottles before his fellow athletes are able to get to them.

But despite the public outcry at his apparent lack of sportsmanship, the French athlete has now claimed that it was all an accident and that the bottles were just 'slippery'.

In a post to his Facebook account, translated to English, the 33-year-old said: "To guarantee freshness to the bottles, these are soaked in water.

"Which makes them slippery. However, it is clear that I am trying to get one from the beginning of the row but these barely slide we touch them."

PA

"With fatigue and all that, I was gradually starting to lose lucidity and energy, while hanging on.

"I would like to apologize to the athletes. At one point, I was trying to be able to hold a bottle of water but I dropped some. It was not easy, trying to be able to hang on...

"In principle, I try to be able to share also during the race, the bottles of water, while respecting everyone and going high and proud, to be able to fight for our colours of the jersey."

Temperatures in the city on the day reached a scorching 27°C, and many branded Amdouni's actions as 'dangerous'.

Piers Morgan slammed the runner, writing: "The Gold medal for biggest d***head of the Tokyo Olympics goes to French marathon runner Morhad Amdouni who deliberately knocks over all the water for his fellow competitors...Unbelievable!"

Echoing the criticism, another user shared the footage, writing: "Marathon runner's act of no fairplay. @amdouni_morhad knocked down water bottles so runners couldn't hydrate."

A third wrote: "Didn't notice this at the time during the marathon earlier... Sometimes s***housery can be kinda funny, if looked at dispassionately. This is just awful. A dangerous, low act from Morhad Amdouni."

While another added: "The act of knocking over a whole row of water bottles in terrible conditions by Morhad Amdouni was the lowest thing I've seen at the Olympics!"

Former Australian track star Tamsyn Manou wasn't as quick to judge Amdouni, though she admitted it probably wasn't the best thing to have done.

Offering her thoughts, she said: "I think it is pretty hard to grab those drinks. But it's not helpful to the athletes behind him."

Topics: World News, Marathon, olympic games, Race, France, Japan

Dominic Smithers

Dominic graduated from the University of Leeds with a degree in French and History. Like you, Dom has often questioned how much use a second language has been. Well, after stints working at the Manchester Evening News, the Accrington Observer and the Macclesfield Express, along with never setting foot in France, he realised the answer is surprisingly little. But I guess, c'est la vie. Contact us at [email protected]

@SmithersDom