The initial winner, Mohammed Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia, was found guily of obstruction while both Abdulrahman Musaeb Balla of Qatar and Abraham Kipchirchir Rotich of Bahrain missed out for breaking from their lanes too early, a woefully ridiculous sin to have committed at any level, let a alone a major championship one. 

Iraq's Adnan Almntfage won gold in a final in which he crossed the line fourth ©Getty Images



This got me thinking about other peculiar outcomes in sport, other instances of what my linguistically-deprived generation would describe as a "WTF moment". And by that I am not referring to the World Taekwondo Federation...

As far as history is concerned, perhaps the most unfortunate disqualification ever seen came in the marathon at the London 1908 Olympic Games. After a burst of speed between Old Oak Common Lane and Wormwood Scrubs, Italian Dorando Pietri was the clear leader as he entered White City Stadium, only to start running the wrong way around the track and collapsing in exhaustion once he had turned. Two officials supported him over the line, leading to American runner-up Johnny Hayes protesting and the Italian being disqualified for receiving assistance.

For bizarre victories, the great example comes in horse racing and 1967 Grand National, a subject of a book by my insidethegames colleague David Owen. Foinavon, ridden by jockey John Buckingham, was a rank outsider at odds of 100/1, only to cross the line first because the rest of the field fell, refused or were somehow eliminated in a mêlée at the 23rd fence, a fence that has since been christened "Foinavon" in honour of the incident.

But, my personal favourite came a few years later, during the 1982 FIFA World Cup in Spain, when Sheikh Fahad Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, the then President of the Kuwait Football Association and father of current Olympic Council of Asia chief Sheikh Ahmad Al Fahad Al Sabah, walked onto the pitch from the stand and attempted to rule out a French goal.

The goal, he claimed, had only been scored because his players had heard a whistle from the crowd and stopped playing. Remarkably, the referee was swayed and this remains perhaps the only time a spectator has directly influenced the outcome of a football match, although France did still win, 4-1.

In my sporting memory there are many similar examples. The best came at Wimbledon 2010 when, in a match featuring two players who had big serves and a lot of heart but not much else, John Isner and Nicolas Mahut played 138 games in their final set, with the American Isner winning 70-68 in a match that lasted 11 hours and five minutes.

I remember coming into my college bar excitedly to watch a World Cup ongoing at the same time, and experiencing a second of outrage that the football was not on before gasping in sheer shock at a tennis score that even the official scoreboard proved incapable of reading. Football, on that day at least, was forgotten.

John Isner and Nicolas Mahut played the longest tennis match ever at Wimbledon 2010 ©AFP/Getty Images





The Olympic has provided several similarly bizarre moments. One which I just about recall was the 100m freestyle heats at Sydney 2000 where Eric Moussambani, surely the best known Equatorial Guinean ever, was the only man left in his 100m freestyle heat after everyone else was disqualified for diving in too early. He won his heat, but only just, nearly sinking on several occasions, before registering a time 65 seconds slower than eventual gold medal winner Pieter van den Hoogenband managed in the final. It later turned out that "Eric the Eel" had never swum in a full-sized Olympic pool before.

Four years later in Athens, German three-day eventer Bettina Hoy was retrospectively awarded 14 time penalties for cantering through the start gate twice, a rookie error almost as bad as breaking from your lane too early, and one which moved her from first to ninth position. And then at Turin 2006, we had US snowboarder Lindsey Jacobellis, who attempted an audacious trick on the final jump when comfortably clear of the rest of the field in the snowboard-cross final. She crashed off the course, allowing stunned Swiss rival Tanja Frieden to cruise across the line first.

Another dramatic and peculiar but quite wonderful sporting moment.

Cricket, a sport that is defined by weirdness more than any other, provides a few good examples. What would you expect from a sport that has lunch and tea breaks built into the game, has fielding positions called silly mid-off and long leg and can - and invariably does - last five days and still end in a draw?

One case slightly before my time involved former England captain Michael Atherton, a Cambridge University educated future sports correspondent for The Times and a man renowned for "playing with a straight bat" both on and off the pitch, being fined for ball tampering in 1994 after it was found he had a patch of dirt in his pocket. He claimed it was to dry his sweat-covered hands but it was ruled that it could be used to illegally affect the ball.

In 2006, during the fourth Test at The Oval, Pakistan were also accused of ball tampering. Five penalty runs were awarded to England as well as a replacement ball. But so incensed were the Pakistanis at the accusation that they failed to reappear after tea and, for the first time in over 1,000 test matches, the result was decided by forfeiture.

Pakistan eventually forfeited a Test match at The Oval after being accused of ball tampering ©Getty Images



In my short time at insidethegames, I have written about two incidents of sports people being involved in fights during competition. The first case involved two former doubles badminton partners from Thailand, Bodin Issara and Maneepong Jongjit, each being banned following an on-court brawl at the Canada Open.

Just last month during the Vuelta a España, Tinkoff-Saxo rider Ivan Rovny and Omega Pharma Quick-Step's Gianluca Brambilla also came to blows while part of the day's breakaway, leading to both riders being disqualified mid-stage.

But, for a final example, we must turn to rugby union and the 2009 Heineken Cup tie between English club Harlequins and Irish opponents Leinster. Harlequins wing Tom Williams came off the field due to a blood injury and was replaced by key-kicker Nick Evans. The only problem was, that the so called blood injury turned out to be the result of a fake blood capsule bought at a local joke shop, and it was a scam orchestrated so as to make a deliberate and tactical substitution.

This is obviously cheating, of the most blatant and indefensible kind, but it is also such a weird thing to do that it certainly merits a mention.

The great thing is that despite the fact sport is continuing to get all the more professional and financially lucrative, bizarre moments like this continue to happen. And, at time of writing en route to the Sportel Conference in Monaco, it is also worth remembering that, as more and more sport is televised, it is far more likely that incidents of this nature will be caught on camera and remembered. 

Nick Butler is a reporter for insidethegames. To follow him on Twitter click here.