Saturday, February 23, 2013

Second Place Winner

 
This is the name of a winner:  
Ivan Fernandez Anaya.

OK, he didn’t win…
He came second in the race,
and his coach may have been
unhappy with that…
but, really, he won.
During a cross-country race,
his goodness and
sense of fair play really shone.
The race was close to finished…
Ivan was coming second. 
Abel Mutai was winning…
but, Abel got confused
about where the finish line was…
He stopped running too early.  
He was still meters away
from the finish line.
As Ivan ran up to him,
 he saw the error,
and could easily have raced past
 and claimed first place.
He didn’t.
He ran right up to Abel Mutai
and pointed to the finish line.

 

He stayed behind Abel
until the race had been won.
Ivan claimed second and was
 immensely proud of his efforts.

Ivan later said:
“I didn’t deserve to win it”.
He explained:
“He was the rightful winner.
He created a gap that I couldn’t
 have closed if he hadn’t made a mistake.”

Because the two men had
little common language between them,
Abel’s thanks were quite simple
in words,
but heartfelt in meaning.

Ivan hopes that his decision
to let fairness
overcome the need for winning
might help children everywhere
to see what is really important.

Although Ivan came second…
it’s probably the best second place
 he could ever take.
Champion.

Ivan’s facebook page


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