Martyn Rooney ran like a dick in his first qualifying heat in Rio – his words, not ours.
The British sprinter and European 400m champion just couldn’t get going on Friday night, and an underwhelming time of 45.6s could only reward him with a fifth -place finish.
Rooney’s elimination from the event at such an early stage came as a surprise to everyone, including himself, which is why when asked by the BBC what had gone wrong, the Olympian’s response was devoid of any long-winded excuses. It was the kind of brutal honesty that many sports fans appreciate.
"I ran like a dick" is the quote of the Olympics so far pic.twitter.com/aCVjVNfx7a
— Carlos Danger 🇲🇽 (@SenorCarlosDan) August 13, 2016
In case you didn’t quite catch that, Rooney told BBC Sport:
“I ran like a d***, it’s pretty much simple as that.”
He added: “[I came] to the Olympics to come perform with the best. I feel like I’m in PB shape.
“I don’t know what I was doing the first 250m. I’m just gutted for myself and everyone that’s supported me.”
The BBC managed to get in three apologies in 60 seconds after the interview.
The frustrated 29-year-old sprinter, who will now go on to compete in the 4x400m relay, later took to Twitter to apologise for his blunt choice of words. He explained that he may have been too relaxed coming into the games in Brazil, and congratulated team-mate Matthew Hudson-Smith for qualifying.
— Martyn Rooney (@MartynRooney) August 13, 2016
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