Brazilian distance runner Giovani dos Santos has the Mexican crowd to thank for winning the bronze medal in the 10,000-meter race at the Pan American Games on Thursday.
Thinking he had third place secured, Santos slowed down entering the last 100 meters and started celebrating. He was waving to the crowd with about 50 meters to go and suddenly noticed the fans were yelling and pointing at him.
"When I looked up to the fans to send them a little kiss, I realized that the Americans were coming very fast," the 20-year-old Santos said.
He looked in awe when he saw that the Americans were closing in, then quickly turned around and had to find strength to sprint to the finish line, just barely beating the Americans.
"I thought they were way back there," Santos said. "I had looked at the 200 mark and they were not close, they came in very fast. I was lucky to have enough legs to make it to the end in front of them."
The Brazilian finished the race in 29 minutes, 51.71 seconds. James Strang was fourth in 29:51.93 and Ryan Vail was fifth in 29:52.04. The race was won by Marilson Santos of Brazil in 29:00.64. Juan Carlos Romero of Mexico was second, 41 seconds behind.
The Americans also were confused as the race neared its end.
"I couldn't see the leader and I couldn't tell which guys were lapping and which guys were placement. I had no idea until I could hear somebody in the stands yelling what place the guy in front of me was," Strang said. "Then when we got to the last 150, I realized he was right in front and I could catch him. I just gave it everything I had and unfortunately he wasn't celebrating long enough and I couldn't get him."
Vail also didn't know how close he was to a medal until late in the race.
"With about 1,200 to go we tried to slowly ease into picking it up, picking it up. We decided to wait until 300 to go and then we realized that was the medal up there, so we both just kind of looked at each other," Vail said. "James went outside, I tried to go inside and we almost caught him."
Giovani dos Santos said he slowed down his pace after realizing that he was not going to catch up the leaders.
"I knew I had no chance for second or first so I decided to take my time and enjoy it a little bit," he said.
The crowd laughed and cheered Santos as he made it across the finish line, but some of his Brazilian teammates joked with him from the stands a bit later.
"There was a little scare there at the end, but I made it," he said. "That's what counts."
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