UK National News - Olympic protest priest receives suspended sentence

30 August 2004

Olympic protest priest receives suspended sentence

The ex-priest who bundled the frontrunner of the mens' Olympic marathon into the crowd with four miles of the race to go has received a 12-month suspended jail sentence.

It is not clear if Cornelius Horan, 57, an Irish national from Co Kerry who lives in Britain, will be deported.

Horan bustled top long-distance runner Brazilian Vanderlei De Lima off the marathon course, later telling police it was to highlight that people should prepare for "the second coming".

De Lima, who was leading the race when he was loosely tackled by Horan, rejoined but said he had been upset by the incident - he finished third to collect the Bronze medal.

The Brazilian Olympic committee are expected to lodge an appeal over the interference in Sunday's marathon race.

Interviewed after the medal ceremony, De Lima said that he was happy to have won a bronze, but later admitted that he may have won a Gold medal.

He said: "I don't know. Things would have been different. I started to have problems after that, I couldn't concentrate. It was very difficult for me to finish. With my sense of Olympic spirit I showed my determination and won a medal."

The International Olympic Committee awarded De Lima the Pierre de Coubertin medal "in recognition of his display of exceptional fair play and Olympic values".

The race winner Stefano Baldini of Italy believed he could have won the race regardless of Mr Horan's interference.

"I believe I would have won anyway. I would have caught him 1km later, but I would have caught him up. When the incident happened, I was running at a rhythm 20 seconds faster than he was," he said.

The governing body for international athletics, the IAAF, has declared that the marathon result will remain unchanged.

Greek police who held Horan overnight said that an obsessive religious conviction had led to this bizarre actions.

Horan also disrupted the British Grand Prix last year by running across the race track and he received a two month sentence for trespassing on the track.

(SP)