Representatives from Kazakhstan are incensed at an embarrassing error by the organizers of the Arab Shooting Championships, which took place in Kuwait this week. Kazakh Maria Dmitrienko won the gold medal in the 75 target event but when she took the podium for the playing of Kazakhstan's anthem, the speakers blasted out the spoof anthem from the movie "Borat."
Apparently, the organizers of the event just started randomly downloading anthems from the Internet and never bothered to listen or confirm that they had the correct song. As a result, Sacha Baron Cohen's version, which refers to Kazakhstan's "clean prostitutes" while insulting neighboring countries, was played throughout the arena. Dmitrienko stood there with a bewildered look, cracking a grin when the minute-long mistake finally ended. Officials from Kazakhstan, however, are not letting it go so easily, calling it a "scandal."
Via Chris Chase at Yahoo!'s Fourth Place Medal:
According to the AP, Kazakh officials are demanding an investigation.
Via SI.com:
Foreign Ministry spokesman Ilyas Omarov told the ITAR-Tass news agency the incident "is, of course, a scandal and demands a thorough investigation, which we intend to conduct."
Kuwaiti officials apologized and indicated that the event was organized and put on by an outside contractor.