Morhad Amdouni won’t be winning any awards for sportsmanship this summer after appearing to ‘sabotage’ his rivals during Sunday’s marathon by knocking over water bottles from a refreshment table – only to save one for himself.
Frenchman Amdouni finished in 14th position in the 26-mile race which took place in sweltering conditions in Tokyo, and the 33-year-old has prompted a fiery debate on social media after footage was captured which appears to show him deliberately knocking over several water bottles which had been provided to refresh runners.
Competitors in front of Amdouni in the leading pack managed to grab a bottle with ease from a refreshment table, but when it came time for Amdouni to do the same he seemed to run his hand through the bottles, knocking each one over before he successfully picked up the final bottle in the line – leaving several runners behind him empty-handed.
The reaction has seen Amdouni deemed “selfish” by several figures on social media, with UK media firebrand Piers Morgan going so far as to declare the French athlete the “biggest d*ckhead of the Tokyo Olympics”.
BREAKING: The Gold medal for biggest d*ckhead of the Tokyo Olympics goes to French marathon runner Morhad Amdouni who deliberately knocks over all the water for his fellow competitors…Unbelievable! pic.twitter.com/D4IwmlAHlL
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) August 8, 2021
“BREAKING: The Gold medal for biggest d*ckhead of the Tokyo Olympics goes to French marathon runner Morhad Amdouni, who deliberately knocks over all the water for his fellow competitors. Unbelievable!” wrote Morgan on social media in response to the footage.
Several others have also joined the online pile-on, with some writing that Amdouni should “hang his head in shame”.
“I’m fairly certain he wasn’t practicing a dominoes trick – there is only one reason he did that and he should hang his head in shame. Hopefully, upon reflection, he will realize what a selfish act that was,” added one critic, while another noted that he “should be disqualified [for] unsportsmanlike conduct.”
I’m fairly certain he wasn’t practicing a dominoes trick, there is only one reason he did that and he should hang his head in shame, hopefully upon reflection he will realize what a selfish act that was.
— Warren Sumner (@Warren_Sumner) August 8, 2021
should be disqualified, unsportsmanlike conduct
— fluglehrer (@fluglehrer) August 8, 2021
A third suggested there was no way that the incident was unintentional, as Amdouni appeared to have little trouble in picking up the final bottle on the table after knocking the rest to the ground.
“No-one else had a problem grabbing one bottle,” they wrote. “Have to think this was intentional.”
No one else had a problem grabbing one bottle. Have to think this was intentional.
— Gieusahaggis (@Gieusahaggis1) August 8, 2021
However, as viewers also noted, there was another refreshment table just a little further up the circuit, so anyone behind Amdouni would likely have had another opportunity to rehydrate during the gruelling race.
Regardless of whether it was deliberate or not, Amdouni didn’t gain any sizeable advantage due to his butter fingers, as he soon fell away from the leading pack and finished some six minutes behind the winner, Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge.
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