elpais.com
Winning a game or making and breaking world records do not always make you great; sometimes, you become a real hero to watch and learn from by losing the game. The 24-year-old Spanish athlete Fernández Anaya has proved to be the example of true spirit of honesty and sportsmanship.
In 2012, on December 2, Iván Fernández Anaya took part in a cross-country race in Burlada, Navarre where he was competing against the Olympic bronze medalist Abel Mutai. Almost throughout the race, Iván was running just a few steps behind Abel Mutai but as they entered the finishing line, he saw that the Kenyan runner Abel Mutai mistakenly started to celebrate his winning 10 meters prior to the finishing line.
But instead of grabbing the opportunity or taking his advantage, Fernández Anaya pushed Abel until he crossed the finishing line of the race. “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.” answered Fernández Anaya on questioning that he could have taken the chance.
Grabbing the mistakenly left opportunity might not break the rule of game and it would have earned him a position in the Spanish team for the European championships but that exploitation would definitely hurt the dignity of his sportsmanship. “In the Burlada cross-country race there was hardly anything at stake […] apart from being able to say that you had beaten an Olympic medalist” Fernández Anaya said.
Info Source: elpais.com
