It is good to know that sportsmanship isn’t completely dead!

Footage has surfaced of a Spanish runner, Ivan Fernandez Anaya, intentionally losing a race in order to do the right thing.

The incident took place at the end of a cross-country event in Burlada, Navarre last month. The clear winner of the race was Abel Mutai, a Kenyan athlete who also won a bronze medal at last year’s London Olympics.

However, about 10m from the finishing line, Mutai mistakenly thought he reached the end of the race. He stopped running.

At that stage in second place, Anaya had the perfect opportunity to exploit the situation and to surge past Mutai. But instead Anaya slowed down, patted Mutai on the shoulder, and guided the Kenyan across the actual finish line.

I didn’t deserve to win it. 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.

Footage of the incident made its way onto social media networks last week, and immediately went viral. A short video can be seen below:

https://youtu.be/azgL23K_8zU

[Source: USA Today]