Track athletes are a rare breed. Most sports require teamwork and a little luck that the other guys don’t show up. Even in 1-on-1 events like tennis, boxing, or MMA, the idea is only to defeat the one person front of you. But in a race, the objective is to be the best and beat everyone in the field, all at once. So, winning such a competition can bring out the inner Ricky Bobby in people, including this steeplechaser from the University of Oregon.
In the video above, runner Tanguy Pepiot was leading the pack near the end of the Men’s Steeplechase at this past weekend’s Pepsi Team Invitational when he slowed to wave and rev up the home crowd. That’s when the University of Washington’s Meron Simon saw his opportunity. He told the Oregonian:
“I thought he had me,” Simon said. “I thought he was so far ahead. Then I heard the crowd get crazy. And then he started throwing his hands up, and I thought: ‘I don’t think he knows I’m coming.’
Pepiot ended up losing by one-tenth of a second. Luckily, he had a good spirit about it, saying, “It wasn’t very smart. But it was a learning experience.”
He joins the proud annals of premature celebrators like DeSean Jackson and Nick Young, just to name a few. It’s a proud fraternity, to say the very least.
