This is a news item.....but could not relegate it to just being that.
Is winning all that counts? Are you absolutely sure about that?
Two weeks ago, on December 2, Spanish athlete Iván Fernández Anaya
was competing in a cross-country race in Burlada, Navarre. He was
running second, some distance behind race leader Abel Mutai - bronze
medalist in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the London Olympics. As they
entered the finishing straight, he saw the Kenyan runner - the certain
winner of the race - mistakenly pull up about 10 meters before the
finish, thinking he had already crossed the line.
Fernández Anaya quickly caught up with him, but instead of exploiting
Mutai's mistake to speed past and claim an unlikely victory, he stayed
behind and, using gestures, guided the Kenyan to the line and let him
cross first.
"I didn't deserve to win it," says 24-year-old Fernández Anaya. "I
did what I had to do. He was the rightful winner. He created a gap that I
couldn't have closed if he hadn't made a mistake. As soon as I saw he
was stopping, I knew I wasn't going to pass him."
Fernández Anaya is coached in Vitoria by former Spanish distance
runner Martín Fiz in the same place, the Prado Park, where he clocked up
kilometers and kilometers of training to become European marathon
champion in 1994 and world marathon champion in 1995.
"It was a very good gesture of honesty," says Fiz. "A gesture of the
kind that isn't made any more. Or rather, of the kind that has never
been made. A gesture that I myself wouldn't have made. I certainly would
have taken advantage of it to win."
Ivan Fernandez Anaya, a Basque runner of
24 years who is considered an athlete with a big future (champion of
Spain of 5,000 meters in promise category two years ago) said after the
test: "But even if they had told me that winning would have earned
me a place in the Spanish team for the European championships, I
wouldn't have done it either. I also think that I have earned more of a
name having done what I did than if I had won. And that is very
important, because today, with the way things are in all circles, in
soccer, in society, in politics, where it seems anything goes, a gesture
of honesty goes down well."
Unfortunately, very little has been said of the gesture. And it's a
shame. In my opinion, it would be nice to explain to children, so they
do not think that sport is only what they see on TV: violent kicks in
abundance, posh statements, fingers in the eyes of the enemy ... ...
