An Olympic marathon runner is getting heat because he seemingly knocked over a row of water bottles like dominos at a hydration station during the 26-mile road race at the Tokyo games.

Upon the video clip embedded below going viral, some social media users accused the athlete, Morhad Amdouni, of an intentional act to deny his rivals the thirst-quenching liquid, while he managed to grab a bottle for himself.

Others insist it was an accident that occurred as the temperature neared 90 degrees in the men’s marathon, considering such factors including that the runners were in close quarters, fatigue was in play that made the grab-and-go difficult, and the bottles were positioned too close together.

Amdouni, 33, who is from France, apparently has yet to make a public comment about the controversy. Either way, the Sunday incident hardly gave him a leg up, as it were, because he wound up finishing 17th in the contest, well behind winner Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya, who crossed the finish line in just over two hours.

While the incident is open for interpretation, U.K. pundit and well-known Meghan Markle foe Piers Morgan immediately reached a conclusion, however, about what happened:

“The Gold medal for biggest d*ckhead of the Tokyo Olympics goes to French marathon runner Morhad Amdouni who deliberately knocks over all the water for his fellow competitors…Unbelievable!,” Morgan wrote on Twitter.

BREAKING: The Gold medal for biggest d*ckhead of the Tokyo Olympics goes to French marathon runner Morhad Amdouni who deliberately knocks over all the water for his fellow competitors…Unbelievable! pic.twitter.com/D4IwmlAHlL

— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) August 8, 2021

Moreover, second-place finisher Abdi Nageeye of the Netherlands, who reportedly was running directly behind Amdouni in the video, won the silver medal for his second-place finish, prompting a Dutch politician to claim that “karma is a b*tch.”

A longer version of the clip appears to shows a table just down the road, fortunately, with plenty of water bottles for the runners.

Here is a representative sample of the mixed social media reaction:

Here’s clearly stumbling. There was a water table right after. Would love to see you try and collect a bottle at 17mph Piers pic.twitter.com/ttpxseLgrc

— Tommy Hawkins (@tommyhawkins) August 8, 2021

doesnt look intentional to me, look how the last bottle snaps into his hands, its unfortunate but looks like a desperate person trying and failing to grab a drink

— Bobby Robby (@BigBobbyRobby) August 8, 2021

You haven’t considered this wasn’t actually deliberate? I’ve knocked bottles out of hands accidentally at water stations – he’s reaching across another athlete and may have been struggling himself. No blame on him whatsoever

— willireallyam 3.5% (@willireallyam1) August 8, 2021

If you’ve listened to the French comments at this point, they insisted on the fact that he usually does not drink during races. So he is not used to taking bottles on his way, especially in these weather conditions. Give him a break. At this speed, of course this would happen

— Elwoth (@elwoth) August 9, 2021

A very French technique I applied myself to be elected in 2017.

— Emmanuel Marcon ⓅⒶⓇⓄⒹⒾⒺ (@Angry_Dog71) August 8, 2021

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Robert Jonathan

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Robert Jonathan is a staff writer for BizPac Review. He is a longtime writer/editor for news aggregation websites and has also developed content in the legal and financial publishing sectors as well as for online education. He earned a Juris Doctorate from the University of Connecticut School of Law, “a law school the basketball teams can be proud of.”

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