Mayhem in the social and sporting scene was created when French runner, Morhad Amdouni appeared to have deliberately knocked over an entire row of water bottles during the Men's Olympic Marathon. Now the culprit is no longer in hiding as it was confirmed through a clip that surfaced on every social handle. The man in question being Amdouni.
Many slammed Amdouni online, calling the act unsportsmanlike. Amdouni later responded to the backlash online, saying that the incident was not deliberate. "To put an end to all the controversy from the video, I show this video to actually understand what happened," he wrote in a social media statement translated from French.
"To guarantee freshness to the bottles, they 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 they slip as soon as we touch them." He added.
The 33 year old also addressed the incident in a video, where he apologised to his opponents."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 colors of the jersey." Amdouni went on to finish 17th, over five minutes behind winner Eliud Kipchoge who took home the gold medal. Whilst it can be difficult to grab the water whilst running, and there's no evidence he did it on purpose, it's amazing the Frenchman only managed to get the last one on the table and most fans definitely think it was foul play.