Defrocked Priests Are All Crazy

But we all pretty much knew that already, didn't we. At least it was an interesting end to, what was for me at least, an otherwise boring Olympics.

Vanderlei de Lima was tiring. That much was clear.

The compact, 35-year-old Brazilian had slipped ahead of the Olympic marathon pack 63 minutes into Sunday's race, but his pursuers had sliced his 40-second lead to 25 as they pounded from Marathon toward Athens on roads still radiating heat. After an hour and 52 minutes, in the 22nd mile, Italy's Stefano Baldini and the United States' Meb Keflezighi were poised to pass the laboring Brazilian, with world-record holder Paul Tergat of Kenya not far behind.

De Lima never got the chance to discover if he could have held off the fresh-looking Baldini and the smooth-striding Keflezighi.

The course of his race — and, perhaps, of the Athens Olympic marathon finish — changed when a defrocked Irish priest with a history of trespassing at sports events and a hand-lettered sign alluding to the Bible affixed to his back darted onto the road and pushed the startled De Lima into spectators watching the final event of the Games.

The intruder, identified by police as 57-year-old Cornelius Horan, had run onto the track of a British Formula One Grand Prix race last year wearing a kilt and beret similar to those he wore Sunday. He also had caused a disturbance on the grounds of Wimbledon last year and tried to disrupt cricket and rugby matches.

Horan, whose sign bore the words, "The Grand Prix Priest. Israel Fulfillment of Prophecy Says The Bible. The Second Coming is Near," was subdued by several bystanders and a Hellenic National police officer who was escorting the runners on a bicycle. Horan was arrested and will appear in court in Athens today, police sources said, though it's unclear what the charges against him will be.