WATCH: Florida high school track runner gets sucker punched in the middle of a race

[sarisataka]

WATCH: Florida high school track runner gets sucker punched in the middle of a race

A high school track and field event in Florida turned ugly on Saturday. The situation unfolded at the Tohopekaliga Tiger Invitational in Kissimmee, Fla. when an athlete punched the lead runner in the middle of the 1,600m race, according to a report from TMZ Sports.

It was all caught on video from the stands (warning: the video contains graphic content and language).

The lead runner of the race, who is wearing white and red in the video, had yelled at the athlete wearing the black uniform to move when he was running around the track during an earlier lap, according to TMZ. The athlete in the black uniform wasn't competing in this specific race. 

After being told to get out of the runner's way, the athlete in black then appeared to intentionally do it again despite the warning, which eventually led to the assault. According to TMZ Sports, it's not yet known if the lead runner, who fell to the ground immediately after getting punched, suffered any injuries as a result of the assault

https://www.cbssports.com/general/news/watch-florida-high-school-track-runner-gets-sucker-punched-in-the-middle-of-a-race/

Life imitates art or art imitates life?

[MineralMan]

1. Wow! That was awful!

[Sneederbunk]

2. File under Will Smith.

[BlackSkimmer]

7. First thing I thought too.

That asshole needs to be kicked out of whatever sports program he’s involved in.

[Duncan Grant]

13. Oscars were Sunday. This is the day before, Saturday.

So the punch is unrelated (but not uncommon this month…).

[Iwasthere]

3. I remember Charles Barkley spitting on spectators in a game

And viciously elbowing a very thin opposing player as they were heading down the court in the Olympics. Lost all respect. Dennis Rodman also, a jerk. Way too much of this shit going on imo.

[BlackSkimmer]

9. Don't forget Juwan Howard.

That was fairly recent.

[uponit7771]

4. Someone insulted the puncher

[BlackSkimmer]

8. Actually, according to the story the runner told him to get off the track and out of the way.

So the idiot purposely stood in the runner’s way on the second go round. Then sucker-punched him.

[Duncan Grant]

14. So maybe he had a very good reason to assault the runner at a public event?

After all, the runner had a previous dust-up with the puncher. And it’s clear the runner knew what he was doing, provoking him and all.

Just trying on that line of reasoning to see how it fits. (Um, not so well actually.)

[Emile]

5. Will Smith apologists will probably make an excuse for this too.

[Fix The Stupid]

6. Should be a hate crime.

Coward.

[uponit7771]

12. Why? did someone do something to invoke hate crime law? tia

[Duncan Grant]

16. Please don't trivialize hate crimes. nt

[Karadeniz]

10. And no-one stopped to pick him up. So much for athletics building character. I remember years ago

A college competition among women runners where a fall occurred and she was helped by another runner.

[CentralMass]

11. We had some pretty low characters in high school track in MA.

Among other races on occasion I ran the two mile. We had a cinder track so many if us wire track shoes with quarter inch spikes. Our track was not an oval and it was a little tight in the first corner. During my first two mile the pack bunched up in the first turn and a runner for the other team intentionally lifted his foot high and spikem me in knee and befere we go out of the corner I caught an elbow to the head. Lesson learned. During the next race I kept my arms wide in that corner to guard against elbows and would push or carefully punch the guy in front of me between the shoulder blades (if I could get away with it) if they tried to spike me.

[Noodleboy13]

15. The lesson here is that it's perfectly acceptable to use physical violence

if you feel you have been dis-respected. I'm gonna take this idea idea and run with it. My TBI has left me with very low impulse control to start with. Now that I know that violence is acceptable, me and my twin Mace pistols are gonna have a freaking blast this summer.

peace,
Noodleboy

[bullwinkle428]

17. I've seen this kind of thing happen on rare occasion in pro cycling. The puncher

ALWAYS gets disqualified, and there are usually long-term repercussions like suspensions, etc.

Elbows and "shoulder barges" take place regularly within the peloton, when you have so many competitors in such close quarters racing aggressively, but the moment your hand comes off the bars to lash out at another rider, you're done.