THE Olympic marathon runner who knocked over an entire row of water bottles claims it was an accident – and insisted they were ‘slippery’.
Morhad Amdouni hit the headlines at the weekend when he reached the water station during the 26.2-mile race in 27-degree heat in Sapporo.
But rather than simply grabbing one bottle like his competitors in front, the Frenchman wiped out the whole line that had been set up.
To top it off, he grabbed the final drink and went on his way as his rivals and viewers at home watched on baffled.
But after being branded the ‘biggest d***head of the Tokyo Olympics’ by Piers Morgan, Amdouni has told his version of events – and denied doing the deed deliberately.
As reported by RMC, the athlete said: “With fatigue and all that, I was gradually starting to lose lucidity and energy while hanging on.
“I would like to apologise to the athletes. At one point, I tried to hold a bottle of water but I dropped some. It was not easy trying to hang on.
“Out of principle, I tried to share the bottles of water during the race while respecting everyone and going high and proud, fighting for our colours of the jersey.”
He later clarified on Facebook: “To put an end to all the sterile controversies generated by the video, I put this video [out to help you] really understand what happened.
“To guarantee freshness to the bottles, they are soaked in the water which makes them slippery.
“However, it is clear that I try to take one from the beginning of the row but these slip when I touch them.”
Amdouni eventually finished in 17th place recording a time of two hours 14 minutes and 33 seconds.
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The race was eventually won by Kenyan legend Eliud Kipchoge.
Kipchoge finished in a time of two hours, eight minutes and 38 seconds to take gold.
In winning the marathon he became one of three to successfully reclaim the title, after his victory in Rio 2016.
Source: Athletics - thesun.co.uk
