THE DISQUALIFIED FRENCH athlete Mahiedine Mekhissi-Benabbad, stripped of his European Championship gold medal in the 3,000m steeplechase for whipping off his vest before the end of the race, on Friday denied he acted arrogantly.
Mekhissi-Benabbad, 29, who was on course for his third successive European title before his disqualification, also dismissed criticism that his action showed disrespect to his fellow-competitors.
“There was no arrogance,” the Frenchman wrote on his Facebook page. “Sorry, I was only thinking of celebrating my victory like a footballer. There was no arrogance towards my fellow-runners or the crowd.”
The two-time World Championship bronze medallist initially received a yellow card warning but a protest lodged by the Spanish team was upheld, prompting an unsuccessful counter-protest by the French.
Yoann Kowal, Mekhissi-Benabbad’s French team-mate, was upgraded from silver to gold, with Krystian Zalewski of Poland promoted to second and Spain’s Angel Mullera to third.
French athletics federation president Bernard Amsalem, described Mekhissi-Benabbad’s action as “unacceptable”, but criticised the way the matter was handled.
“The action was unacceptable, you don’t take off your vest during a race, it isn’t done,” he said.
“At the same time, he took off his vest and it didn’t hurt anyone. He’s impulsive. But it should have stopped there. Unfortunately, the Spanish lodged a protest. I would never have lodged a protest, the Spanish acted badly.”
Mekhissi-Benabbad has a reputation as the bad boy of track and field, having pushed mascots after winning the European steeplechase final in Barcelona in 2010 and in Helsinki in 2012.
He was also given a suspended sentence by the French federation, fined 1,500 euros and ordered to perform 50 hours of community service after getting into a fist fight with fellow Frenchman Mehdi Baala after a Diamond League 1,500m race in Monaco in 2011.
Mekhissi-Benabbad was due back on the track in Zurich on Friday in the heats of the 1,500m.
Interesting and hopeful. Thanks.
I missed the game and just watched it back. After listening to OTB and reading the 42 I was very excited to watch it. I have to say I was underwhelmed. We were decent and it is promising for the future but to hear that it was the most exciting performance since 2002!!! Also the time should have been added, it was a pen and Ronaldo shouldn’t have been sent off. I did think the connelly one was a pen though.
@James Murphy: name a more exiting performance we’ve had against one of the best teams in the world since 2002?
@James Murphy: I didn’t hear many people disputing it wasn’t a penalty for Portugal it was 50/50 not obvious either way that’s why the ref watched it back around 10 times and the extra time in extra time shouldn’t of been allowed we cleared the ball after the 5 mins twice the ref should of undoubtedly blew the whistle… We absolutely deserved a draw but all that aside promising for the future indeed!
@James Murphy: it was very exciting watching it live
@John Kelly: Germany and Italy games under Martin oneil were just as exciting. Look it was good and as I said promising and I would be backing Kenny with a contract. We didn’t deserve a draw unless we got one.
@James Murphy: Well there hasn’t been too many and that’s for sure, not having a go I agree it was promising and Kenny is the man for it I just think it was a really positive performance and think we definitely deserved a draw