Barcelona 2010

There is not often much to say about British men’s distance running in major championships, but we’re spoiled for choice this year.  The undoubted highlight has been Mo Farah’s 5,000 / 10,000 double.

It’s rare for Brendan Foster to say anything worth hearing but he made a good point last night when he said Mo Farah should enjoy this success for its own sake before thinking about World and Olympic medals. 

Farah’s run in the 5,000m was amazing to watch.  As he tore the field apart with a 2:25 last kilometre it was hard to suppress thoughts of a medal in Daegu next year or in London in 2012. 

This probably means that anything less than a medal in next year’s World Championships will be viewed as failure.  Is this realistic?

Here are the winning times, and last kilometre splits for the last 3 global 5,000m championships:

A 2:25 last kilometre is in the right ball park, but in Berlin three runners managed that in a faster race than in Barcelona. In Beijing a 2:34 last kilometre was enough to get bronze but, for it to count, Farah would have had to run within a second of his personal best in a race which had started with a slow (2:45) first kilometre. 

Osaka was the most comparable race to Barcelona but in fact Farah ran a 2:25 last kilometre there and ‘only’ came 6th.

Farah still seems to be improving, and he had already run the 10,000m this week, but it’s worth remembering just how hard global medals are to win!

European Athletics Champs

In a world where once-extraordinary athletic feats barely raise an eyebrow, the European athletics championships are a kind of time warp, where old certainties still hold sway.  Britain is a distance running powerhouse!  1 and 2 in the men’s 10,000m for Mo Farah and Chris Thompson tonight!

Spare a thought though for Andy Vernon, watching from his sofa. He ran 28:11 for 10,000m this year, making him Europe’s fourth fastest (and 6th fastest Briton since 2000).  He’s run faster this year than the Italian bronze medallist Daniele Meucci.  He’s not ill or injured  - he just wasn’t selected.

Any other European country would have selected him but for some reason the UK requires the same qualifying standard as for a global championships, so only Thompson and Farah could run.  If a medal in Barcelona isn’t worth something in its own right (rather than being an indicator of ability in a global championships) then why do we send a team at all?

Anyway, loads more distance action this week:  Meadows and Rimmer in the 800s, Baddeley and Dobriskey in the 1500s, Thompson and Farah going again in the men’s 5,000.

Tomorrow Michael Rimmer starts his campaign - his 1:44.49 PB making him the fastest in the field.