Oregon runner celebrates early, loses race (video)

Oregon sprinter provides us all a reminder not to celebrate before you’ve actually won

Oregon runner Tanguy Pepiot thought he had it all made. In the shade.

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Pepiot had a considerable lead in the men’s steeplechase run, and he decided to take advantage of his lead to slow down, pose for the cameras and get the crowd going.

What he didn’t see was that the other runners were continuing to run at a sprinter’s speed. You know, like you do when you’re in the middle of a race.

In particular, Washington’s Meron Simon seemed to have become possessed by some sort of running spirit and came on strong behind Pepiot, overcoming him before Pepiot even realized what happened.

You can see Pepiot’s premature celebration and eventual loss here in this video:

Pepiot seriously runs the full gamut of all possible emotions there. He goes from the pure joy of an inevitable win to the tragedy of not only losing, but knowing it was totally his fault.

That’s got to be the worst kind of loss. That’s not “you tried your best but someone was better than you,” that’s “you were better than all of them, but you did something stupid and lost,” which has to be a much worse feeling. And Pepiot knows it. Just look at him at the end of the video.

I think it’s safe to say Pepiot will be saving his celebrations for the end of the race from now on.

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