The news these days is often depressing at worst and frustrating at best. It’s easy to get caught up in the spin cycle and let it get us down. Never fear… The News Blender has you covered. Once a week, we feature Something Good and, in return, all you have to do is tell us something good that has happened to you this week, something you are thankful for, a joke, a cute animal story, an inspiring tale of heroics, a Random Act of Kindness… SOMETHING good.
This week’s Something Good is sportsmanship and going above and beyond fair play.
On September 13, Diego Méntriga was heading to the finish line of the Santander Triathlon in fourth place behind James Teagle when Teagle took a wrong turn. Just a step or two wrong, but enough to put the podium out of reach.
Diego suddenly had the opportunity to stand on the podium with first and second place winners and triathlon legends Javier Gomez and Kevin Viñuela, according to HuffPo. Instead, Diego glanced behind him, realized what had happened to the Brit and slowed to a walk, waiting to allow James to cross the finish line before him and secure third place.
Diego told the Spanish press, “The point is, he deserved his third place. Seeing how wrong he was, I stopped, almost unconsciously. He must not have seen the detour to the finish line.” He said if he had it to do again, he would do the same.
James Teagle gratefully shook Diego’s hand as they approached the finish line together and first place winner Javier Gomez called the display of sportsmanship “the best in history”. Other prominent sports chimed in to praise Diego’s sacrifice as the video went viral over the weekend and Diego found himself universally hailed as a hero of sport.
According to Diego, he and James are fierce competitors who would normally be fighting and scrapping to beat one another in any given competition but Diego demonstrated the best of sport in his impulse to play fair as his competitor left the door open for him to take third place. Such an action reminds us of the value of a fight fought with honor and that winning isn’t everything.
Now it’s your turn… Tell me something good!
