London 2012: Lord Coe says 'poetic justice' was served after judo champion whacked bottle thrower

A bottle is thrown at the start of the men's 100m final (Getty Images)

Sebastian Coe has described a spectator who allegedly threw a bottle onto the track at the start of the 100m men's final as getting "poetic justice" when he was then smacked by a judo champion.

Locog chairman Lord Coe said: "I'm not suggesting vigilantism but it was actually poetic justice that they happened to be sitting next to a judo player."

He added: "Throwing a bottle on to the field of play is unacceptable, it's not just unacceptable at an Olympic Games but at any sporting event and anybody who does that will be removed.

"There is zero tolerance for anything like that."

Holland's world judo champion Edith Bosch swung into action after seeing the man lob the bottle just seconds before the race started.

She claimed on Twitter that she had "beaten" the person who had thrown the bottle.

She said: "A drunken spectator threw a bottle onto the track! I HAVE BEATEN HIM .... unbelievable."

Speaking to NOS TV, Bosch said: "I had seen the man walking around earlier and said to people around me that he was a peculiar bloke.

"Then he threw that bottle and in my emotion I hit him on the back with the flat of my hand. Then he was scooped up by the security.

"However, he did make me miss the final, and I am very sad about that. I just cannot understand how someone can do something like that."

A police spokesman said a man had been heard shouting abuse and was then seen throwing a bottle immediately before the race, won by Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt.

Speaking after the race, US sprinter Justin Gatlin, who won bronze, said: "It was a little distraction and I didn't know what it was.

"But when you're in those blocks and the whole stadium's quiet you can hear a pin drop."

Bolt told reporters he had been unaware of the incident.

He added: "No, I keep hearing that. I don't know who would have done that."

Fellow Jamaican sprinter Yohan Blake said: "I was so focused I didn't see anything. I was so focused on just running to the line."

Nobody was injured during the incident and the event was not disrupted, police said.

The suspect is being held in police custody at an east London police station on suspicion of causing a public nuisance.

Gatlin said the incident had not affected the race: "You just have to block it out and go out there and do what you got to do. You can't complains about that, the race went on and it was a great race."

A Locog spokesman said: "A man was arrested inside the Olympic Stadium last night after throwing a plastic bottle on to the track just before the men's 100m final.

"The incident had no impact on the competitors or the event.

"Locog does not tolerate abusive or anti-social behaviour and will seek to remove people behaving in this way from its venues."

Locog was unable to say which section of the stands the bottle was thrown from, but the man appeared to be sitting near members of the Dutch Olympic team behind the 100m start line.