A French athlete who was dubbed the "biggest d**khead" of the Tokyo Olympics over a water bottle blunder during the men's marathon has apologised.
Morhad Amdouni was widely criticised over the weekend after a video went viral - showing him knocking over an entire row of water bottles at a rehydration station before picking up the last one on the table.
It meant competitors behind Amdouni weren't able to grab a drink in what were humid 30C temperatures.
Amdouni finished 17th.
The incident was slammed online with commenters calling into question his sportsmanship, but Amdouni has now addressed it in a video posted to his Instagram - saying it was an accident.
He explained the bottles were slippery due to being kept on ice, and grabbing them was difficult due to his exhaustion.
"With the fatigue, I started bit by bit to lose lucidity and energy in hanging on," he said, according to Sports Illustrated.
"So I really want to apologise to the athletes. But at one moment I tried to get hold of a water bottle, I made them fall."
Among those to criticise Amdouni was former Good Morning Britain host Piers Morgan who called the incident "unbelievable" on Twitter.
"The gold medal for biggest d**khead of the Tokyo Olympics goes to French marathon runner Morhad Amdouni who deliberately knocks over all the water for his fellow competitors," he wrote.
UK television presenter Julia Bradbury said on Twitter it was "loser" behaviour while French businessman and author Benoist Rousseau called it "stupidity at its peak".
