Christ to restore gold, priest says
The defrocked Irish priest who ran out in a kilt and attacked the lead runner in the men’s marathon on Sunday was given a 12-month suspended jail sentence yesterday for disrupting the Olympic event. Cornelius Horan, 57, was also fined 3,000 euros for the attack, during which Brazil’s Vanderlei de Lima suffered no harm but lost most of his lead some 5 kilometers before the end of the grueling, 42.2-kilometer race. He was soon overtaken by an Italian and an American runner, but managed to cling to third place until the end. The apparently deranged Horan, who disrupted the British Formula 1 Grand Prix last July by running onto the track in mid-race, told an Athens misdemeanors court yesterday he regretted the attack on de Lima, adding he believed Christ would restore the marathon gold to the unfortunate Brazilian. The former priest, a London resident, said he wanted to draw attention to the idea the Day of Judgment is drawing close. He was released after paying the fine.
