The bottles were lined up right next to each other, it was almost impossible NOT to knock them over.

Waterbottlegate wrote:

Try it yourselves oh high and mighty ones. Running in a group at 12 mph.

Maybe 1 or 2 or 3 bottles at speed.

With regards to “almost impossible”, other runners seem to manage.

And yet, 80+ other runners managed not to knock them over

Watch the slow motion video carefully.

Now you try and do that running in a group at 12 mph.

rekrunner wrote:

Waterbottlegate wrote:

Try it yourselves oh high and mighty ones. Running in a group at 12 mph.

Maybe 1 or 2 or 3 bottles at speed.

With regards to “almost impossible”, other runners seem to manage.

Try it yourself. Then get back to me.

You try it too, then come back to us and only then, can you tell us if you found it "almost impossible".

Meanwhile no one from the men or women failed so badly. I dont recall ever seeing anything comparable in any marathon, ever.

But sure, "almost impossible" should be the default assumption.

Waterbottlegate wrote:

Try it yourselves oh high and mighty ones. Running in a group at 12 mph.

Troll. You could have said that on existing threads.

He should be banned for one year. The ban could be reduced to 6 months if he volunteers to give out water at 20 races.

memo 618 wrote:

Waterbottlegate wrote:

Try it yourselves oh high and mighty ones. Running in a group at 12 mph.

Troll. You could have said that on existing threads.

He should be banned for one year. The ban could be reduced to 6 months if he volunteers to give out water at 20 races.

Troll.

rekrunner wrote:

You try it too, then come back to us and only then, can you tell us if you found it "almost impossible".

Meanwhile no one from the men or women failed so badly. I dont recall ever seeing anything comparable in any marathon, ever.

But sure, "almost impossible" should be the default assumption.

I have tried it. And my pace wasn't 5 minute miling. And the weather was perfect. And I was running on my own.

And they were spaced further apart, and yet I found it awkward to grab a bottle.

What is your experience?

So many people, so quick to judge. So much holier than thou ignorance and stupidity. Oh and he's Morrocan too, so he must have done it deliberately according to your sources, right?

Watch carefully. Look what actually happened in the slow motion repeat, not what you think happened.

Actually there it does look like he's genuinely trying to grab one.

A little bit of background here, on the bottle tumbling thoner, M.Amdouni.

Amdouni grew up on the projects in Porto Vechio, Corsica, an island belonging to France in the Mediterranean Sea. The projects are basically social housing for poor and disadvantaged people large majority of them immigrants from the Maghrib that is countries like Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco. He had to fight for everything during his childhood as he was quite small. He loved soccer and on the soccer field he showed tremendous tenacious spirit but he would have to fight for every ball because he was knocked around by his peers who were often much bigger than him.

Most of his peers that he grew up with are now either unemployed and many of them are in prison, mostly for drug offenses because France takes a very hard line against drugs even “soft drugs” like marijuana and cannabis.

If you look at the background he came from it’s quite amazing that he has succeeded as much as he has. As far as we know he has no criminal record which is a badge of honor in France for people from that background. We call it « casier judiciaire vierge » which means a “white sheet of paper no criminal record” that is a feat in itself coming from the background where so many of his peers were involved in illegal acts from burglary to drug pushing.

Once again, I’m not condoning what he did, but if you were in his shoes you might also have things happened to you which are unfortunate.

Let’s give this guy a break and MoveOn please - thank you.

Reminder, from previous thread:

I think some people are forgetting that he has done a great performance for France in the overall scheme of things. First off finishing 10th in the 10,000 m final in 27:53.58, just behind superstars like Kwemoi (27:50.06), Kejelcha (27:52.03), and Rhonex K. (27:52.78). He followed this up with his brave run in the marathon one week later finishing 17th overall (2:14:33), also beating champions like Ringer (2:16:08), Riley (2:16:26), Robertson (2:17:04), Moen (2:17:59), Abdirahman (2:18:27), Thompson (2:21:29), Nakamura (2:22:23), Levins (2:28:43), not to mention all the drop outs, around 30 incl.,Desisa, Tan Geay, Hawkins, etc....

So advocating a lifetime ban for this runner, Amdouni, who has served France very well would be way over the top and unjustified. Yep, he committed a malevolent act but this in no way takes away from an illustrious career that he has produced up till now and at age 33 he does not have much longer to go and I think Paris 2024 will be a swan song at age 36 if he lasts until then.

Do you people ever watch ATP tennis professionals.? There are professional tennis players (Kirgios, Paire, etc...) who do the same kind of thing over and over again and people just laugh and life goes on. It just seems that in track - athletes are held to a higher order which is disproportionate to what they do.

Yes, he made three attempts and finally succeeded.

And he was leaning across the runner behind him.

But most people are accusing him of deliberately running his hand along the line of bottles to deny others in the race. That would be a cause for prosecution. But it's not what really happened.

Watching the slo mo at 1/4 speed shows what really happened.

Ghost1 wrote:

Yep, he committed a malevolent act...

Christophe, for goodness sake stop with the nonsense and watch what actually happened.

Did you see Kipchoge and the next two guys deftly grab only the first one they came to?

3 runners in a row did the impossible.

This French guy looked like a drunk trying to pick up his keys.

Now, I do not think he did it on purpose. Just incompetence.

Waterbottlegate wrote:

Ghost1 wrote:

Yep, he committed a malevolent act...

Christophe, for goodness sake stop with the nonsense and watch what actually happened.

I agree with you on principle but I don’t agree that he should be banned for life. He should be called on what he did by the French athletic Federation who have done nothing so far because I saw images of him celebrating at the closing ceremony where everything looked normal. You know, in France we have to be very politically correct with people from the Maghrib that is the situation here. Once again, I agree with you that’s what he did was absolutely not good but I think people are making a mountain out of it. I looked at the video and I noticed that next to the bottles knocked down there - were other bottles in the second row which were available.

Here is an article from the French newspaper yesterday:

Source: Le journal ‘Le Figaro’ du dimanche 8 août 2021 (Ghost1 edit -Fr/Eng)

A characterized unsportsmanlike gesture or a big clumsiness linked to a lack of lucidity? Only the person concerned (Amdouni) can know. Still, the attitude of the Frenchman, Morhad Amdouni, during a refueling for the Olympic marathon this Sunday in Tokyo remains questionable. While still part of the leading group after about thirty kilometers of racing, the marathoner distinguished himself on a refueling by dropping all the bottles lined up on a table except the last one, which he managed to grab.

On balance, in view of the images, it seems difficult to plead awkwardness as his act seems deliberate, especially when he catches the last bottle without problems.

Nevertheless, in his defense, it was not long before he faded to finish the race in 17th place at 5'55 '' from the Kenyan winner Eliud Kipchoge. Is it possible that the 33-year-old athlete could have lacked lucidity to the point of overturning everything involuntarily, before pulling himself together in extremis? To each his opinion, the main interested party (Amdouni himself) having posted a video on his Instagram account to comment on his race, without mentioning this incident for a second. Still, it was better not to go behind him if a competitor was thirsty in Sapporo, the scene of the Tokyo Games marathon.

Waterbottlegate wrote:

Try it yourselves oh high and mighty ones. Running in a group at 12 mph.

I have done this before (including at world championships and other major championships and marathons) and while it is harder than it looks (running fast, poor conditions, tired at 30k+) I’ve rarely had an issue (only in heavy rain and wind when bottles were being knocked over by the weather) and never as egregious as that. That being said, he was in a reasonably sized group and the water bottle seemed pretty tightly packed (normally there is more spacing).

Also, the slow motion video does at least show some attempts at closing his hand, so that’s good.

All that being said, hard to believe there wasn’t some malicious intent, considering how everyone else did fine and this is something you practice frequently leading up to a race at this level.

Are some of you blind? Or do you just see what you want to see? It's obvious that he did it on purpose.

Star wrote:

Did you see Kipchoge and the next two guys deftly grab only the first one they came to?

3 runners in a row did the impossible.

This French guy looked like a drunk trying to pick up his keys.

Now, I do not think he did it on purpose. Just incompetence.

Yes, but Amdouni was extremely fatigued and leaning across the runner behind him, so yes he did look like a drunk trying to pick up his keys.

Yes Star, you are right on the first two counts. But incompetence? How would you have fared in that situation?

He was fumbling. But not committing an act of sabotage.