It’s been a tough few days for premature celebrations.
Spanish cyclist Eloy Teruel made headlines on Saturday when he celebrated a lap too early at the Tour of California and ended up relinquishing his lead.
Algerian runner Taoufik Makhloufi made a similar mistake just one day later, and he suffered much more immediate consequences.
Makhloufi appeared to be pulling away from a tight pack down the stretch during an 800m race in Shanghai, China, on Sunday, and decided to extend his arms in celebration of his feat.
What Makhloufi failed to realize was that Kenyan runner Robert Kiptoo Biwott was making a hard push for the finish, and Biwott managed to edge Makhloufi at the line while the clueless Algerian basked in premature glory.
As the GIF shows, Makhloufi was looking to his left as approached the finish line and was completely oblivious to the charging Biwott, who won the race with a personal-best time of 1:44.69.
To make matters worse, Makhloufi still thought he won after he crossed the line and flashed a thumbs-up to the crowd. He even fooled an event volunteer, who handed the runner some victory flowers before Makhloufi was finally informed by a race official that he hadn’t won.
Check out a video of the race’s crazy finish below.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69Yzat86-zI&w=640&h=360]
GIF via Business Insider
