With only five kilometres to go, Vanderlei de Lima led the marathon by 46 seconds and was running well. Then a man dressed in a kilt jumped out of the crowd onto the course, grabbed Mr. de Lima and pushed him into the audience. Audience members and police freed Mr. de Lima about eleven seconds later, but he was favouring his right leg and had lost his rhythm. He lost his lead and the Gold Medal a few moments later.

Mr. de Lima's attacker is the same kook known as the Grand Prix Priest because he ran onto the F1 course at the British Grand Prix last year forcing racers to swerve around him. He is a defrocked Irish preist who believes Judgment Day is upon us.

Mr. de Lima, who finished with a Bronze, told reporters the incident was frightening.

"When I saw the man who was jumping on me I was scared, because I didn't know what could happen to me, whether he was armed with a knife, a revolver or something and whether he was going to kill me," he said after the race.

He went on to say, "If you stop in a marathon, you struggle the next three or four kilometres. It's hard to get your rhythm back. I don't know if I would have won, but things would have been different."

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) says it will award him the Pierre de Coubertin medal in recognition of his "exceptional demonstration of fair play and Olympic values.'' However, the Brazilian team has requested a duplicate Gold Medal for de Lima in light of the incident - a request that has been rejected.

Pardon me for being a little surprised. You get mauled by a defrocked Irish priest ranting about Judgement Day five clicks from the finish of the Olympic marathon, it costs you the Gold medal and the only recognition you get is the Olympic equivalent of "Miss Congeniality"?

Well, that just isn't good enough. The IOC should give him a Gold Medal and an apology for even allowing the incident to take place.