Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: vorticon on August 29, 2004, 03:47:40 PM
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http://www.cbc.ca/story/olympics/national/2004/08/29/Sports/marathon040829.html
"Marathon marred by attack on race leader
Last Updated: Sun Aug 29 15:57:59 EDT 2004
CBC SPORTS ONLINE - The final athletic event of the Athens Olympics took a bizarre and tragic turn when a spectator grabbed the marathon race leader with just five kilometres left on Sunday.
FROM AUG. 17, 2004: Security tightened after Canadian leaps into pool
A spectator grabs race leader Vanderlei de Lima at the Olympic marathon. (AP/Koji Sasahara)
Vanderlei de Lima of Brazil finished with the bronze medal after a man wearing a costume and a sign on his back ran into the race lane, grabbed the runner and pulled him into the crowd.
De Lima came back onto the course but quickly lost his lead to Stephano Baldini of Italy, who ran into Panathinaikon Stadium and crossed the finish line at two hours, 10 minutes and 55 seconds to win the gold.
"I was scared, because I didn't know what could happen to me, whether he was armed with a knife, a revolver or something and whether he was going to kill me," Lima said after the race. "That's what cost me the gold medal."
"It's a major tragedy," says CBC athletics analyst Steve Ovett. "It sickens me to see something like this happen. It's absolutely disgusting."
Roberto Gesta de Melo, the head of the Brazilian track federation, has written an appeal on behalf of Lima.
"Someone took him out the race and we are asking for a gold medal for our athlete," said de Melo. "Solutions like that have been done in the past for other events."
The protestor was identified as defrocked Irish priest Cornelius Horan, the same man who disrupted the British Grand Prix in July 2003 by running onto the course during the race.
Horan, who once wrote a book about an upcoming apocalypse, wore a piece of paper on his back which read "The Grand Prix Priest. Israel Fulfilment of Prophecy Says The Bible."
He was arrested and taken to a jail in Athens.
Mebrahtom Keflezighi of the United States finished second with a time of 2:11:29 and de Lima managed to salvage a bronze with a time of 2:12:11.
De Lima will also receive the special Pierre de Coubertin Medal in recognition of his "exceptional demonstration of fair play and Olympic values," the IOC said.
The medal is named after the founder of the modern Olympics.
The 2003 Pan American Games gold medallist had run ahead of the pack midway through the race, reaching the halfway mark in 1:07:23. But a pack of 20 runners, including world record holder Paul Tergat of Kenya, were not far behind.
But rather than fade with each successive stage, de Lima seemed to get stronger and managed to hang on to a 40-second lead for much of the second-half of the race until the spectator attacked.
The race began in the town of Marathon, northeast of Athens, 47.2 kilometres from the Olympic Village, following the ancient route Athenian soldier Pheidippides was said to have taken to deliver the news of a victory over the Persians at the battle of Marathon.
The conditions were, as expected, harsh on the runners. The temperature at the start of the race was 30 degrees and felt like 39 C with the humidity.
Runners began to drop out of the race at about the one hour and 20-minute mark, as the mix of hilly regions and long stretches of straight roads began to wear on the athletes.
It was the second time Olympic security allowed a spectator to disrupt an event at the Athens Games. A Canadian man wearing a tutu jumped into the pool during the men's synchronized diving competition.
But this incident was doubly worse, for it not only affected a competitor directly but also marred what is seen as one of the signature events of the Games, the last race before the Closing Ceremony.
"This is really one of the saddest moments in sport," Ovett said. "
Written by CBC Sports Online staff
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This guy picked the wrong place for his stunt. Greece isn't exactly known for "ethical" treatment of criminals.
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Ex-priest huh? Well, most marathoners are quite skinny and small. Perhaps he just thought he was an alter boy and lost control of himself.
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Catholic priest in a Greek jail.
This could turn out to be really funny.
"Το Ben πέρα από τον πατέρα, αυτό το won't έβλαψε καθόλου όλων"
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I hope he gets the full Greek prison treatment. The guy's a religious nut. apparently he did the same thing at an athletics meeting here recently not to mention the British Grand Prix track stunt. Apparently he does peace dances trying to promote his mad view of the so called coming apocalpse. Tehy should throw away the key this time.
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Go figure but apparently law enforcement officals believe he suffers from some sort of psychological disease.
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they should give the brazilian and the italian a gold medal IMHO.
the fact that he got up and kept running after the attack is enough!
such strong will power is amazing.
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If they gave the GoldenPalace.com idiot three years in prison, they should give this moron life.
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Go figure but apparently law enforcement officals believe he suffers from some sort of psychological disease.
And this excuses him from the death penalty how?
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i think they should give whoever is incharge of security at that sorta thing jail time. and the priest should be thanked for showing how f*ed up there security was
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I watched the race. de Lima saw the guy comming out of the crowd, but the cop behind him on the bicycle must have been looking at women as he was oblivious to what was going on until de Lima was in the nut's grip. Great police work there - yup - uhuh.
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What a crock.
Man Who Grabbed Runner Won't Be Jailed.
ATHENS, Greece Aug. 30, 2004 — A defrocked Irish priest with a history of disrupting sports events was given a one-year suspended sentence and fined $3,600 Monday for grabbing a runner who was leading the Olympic marathon with three miles to go.
Cornelius Horan was convicted by a misdemeanor court of violating Greece's laws on extracurricular sports for knocking Vanderlei de Lima into the crowd on Sunday. De Lima continued running, but he soon lost his lead and finished third.
(http://a.abcnews.com/images/autowirestory/AP/LON81608292031.jpeg)
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probably the maximum sentence under the only crime they could possible convict him of...
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He should have popped him in the jaw and kept running.
Karaya
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de Lima showed a great deal of sportsmanship. He deserves his special award. He had a good chance of winning, very sad.
OTOH, the Greeks did a splendid job. Great games and some fantastic performances.
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They should put a rope around that guy's neck and tie him to a truck doin 5 minute miles for 2 hours...and don't brake for anything.
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Originally posted by vorticon
probably the maximum sentence under the only crime they could possible convict him of...
How can the pool-diving idiot with the tutu get five months, and the guy who actually assaulted someone gets probation?
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Originally posted by Mickey1992
How can the pool-diving idiot with the tutu get five months, and the guy who actually assaulted someone gets probation?
the...pool...diving...idiot.. .was...CANADIAN!!!
DETH TO GREECE
:D