Everything was going swimmingly for Edwin Kipsang Rotich as he led the 10k Kings Race in Cuiaba, Brazil, last Sunday.
That is, of course, until a spectator decided to rugby tackle him and nearly destroy his race. Amazingly, the Kenyan was able to shrug off his attacker and continued on to win the race. Now that takes some steely nerves.
A man, who reportedly suffers from mental health issues, was arrested after the race. Check out the mayhem here:
This is not the first time an incident like his has plagued a running race. At the 2004 Olympics in Athens, a former priest from Ireland broke on to the running course and accosted Vanderlei de Lima during the marathon.
De Lima was leading the race at the time and the incident took him completely off his stride. He was passed by two other runners but he somehow managed to regain enough momentum to win the bronze medal. The Brazilian’s sterling effort to stay on the podium in spite of his assault was one of the most inspiring incidents of the Games.
