UKC

Now that was a proper gold medal performance...no hiding there. No equipment. No barriers to entry for poorer countries. What a crowd.

In reply to Phil1919:
That was some evening for athletics!

In reply to Phil1919:
Poor old Mo, they certainly put the pressure on him with the camera at the start. What a gutsy run to follow.

In reply to Phil1919: Farah, not Farrah.

In reply to Phil1919:
Anybody else thinks he looks a bit like russell brand ?

Well, apart from the skin tone and the hairstyle

Great way to round off an amazing day

In reply to Chris the Tall: .....and Galen Rupp!

In reply to Phil1919:
Yupp!

In reply to Chris the Tall: I said exactly that in the post-race interview, think it's perhaps more expressions and accent than looks. What a dude!

In reply to Phil1919:

For white middle-class racists, Mo's victory was a bit of a Jesse Owens moment, wasn't it?

I hope the Daily Abscess and Daily Mule have the grace to acknowledge that if they'd had their way over asylum seekers, Mo Farah would have got gold for Somalia, not for us.

In reply to Phil1919:
To quote what someone funnier than me wrote on Twitter: @dmreporter "Fury as mixed race woman and immigrant black man steal gold medals from indigenous competitors."

In reply to Tim Chappell: and someone commented to me about how uncomfortable Alex Salmond will be feeling with all this pro GB sentiment. Not sure if that's the case as I haven't seen or read anything about it...but did make me smile

In reply to Tim Chappell:


Yes, he would have benefitted from Somalia's renowned elite athlete programme, wouldn't he? Anyway his dad's English so not sure the family couldn't have moved here anyway.

Great performance by a top bloke.

In reply to Phil1919:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=453890187974751&set=a.167782276...

In reply to Game of Conkers:

Yep, I'm glad to say that Alex Salmond is having a terrible Olympics

In reply to Tim Chappell:

he's not an asylum seeker

or a refugee or an illegal immigrant.

And he doesn't live in GB anymore does he?

In reply to Parrys_apprentice:

Oregon I think.

His run on Saturday was absolutely sensational - the highlight of the Games so far for me. I'm hoping he can come back and win the 5k too.

In reply to Parrys_apprentice: No Trains with Alberto Salazar, alongside silver medalist Rupp.

Great move as he's come on since then. Great race to watch, such a slow start. It will be interesting to see the 5k. I'm surprised everyone played into his hands so easily. I thought the Kenyans would go out and run fast and go for a quick time rather than a slower first 7 or 8k.

In reply to J Brown: It shouldn't really matter where he comes from. Its always more interesting when you know the runner, but it can get a bit too nationalistic for me. The best athlete should win in a close contest, with an even playing field. Obvious really.

In reply to IainRUK: They just weren't good enopugh to go out that fast in the end. It woould have been interesting to have seen a Bekele at his best in the race as well.

In reply to Phil1919: Its a huge chunk of the WR though, 1 minute plus?

I still expected them to run low 27's.

Great to see and as someone I know in the states said Salazar has trained those two to be able ton run sub 27 10k pace but also run slower and be able to do a 53sec or so last lap..

Both you need to do to win olympic gold. So I'm not trying to take anything away from Mo because if they had stepped up the gear he's shown he can also go quicker.

In reply to IainRUK: Yes, it would have been interesting to have seen just how quick he could have gone. Hopefully the 5k final will push him to the limit and he gains a narrow victory.....

In reply to Tim Chappell:

"Yep, I'm glad to say that Alex Salmond is having a terrible Olympics
"

Yeh because a few medals are enough to show that we really are 'bitter' together. Now back in the world of grown ups...

In reply to IainRUK: Salazar was notorious for over training and burning himself out, though he was pretty quick for a while!! just hope he doesn't do the same with Mo, it's a fine line at that level

In reply to Tim Chappell:

Perhaps he's playing the long game......?

Commonwealth Champion Sir Chris Hoy wrapped in a Saltire weeks before the 2014 referendum?

In reply to Phil1919:

Http://mofarahrunningawayfromthings.tumblr.com

In reply to Phil1919:

Now the euphoria of Mo Farah's brilliant wins in the 5,000m and 10,000m has slightly died down if you look at the times it would appear all the other runners really played into Mo's hands.

He was known to probably have the fastest finish of them all so why was the pace so relatively slow?

Have a guess how many years since these races were won in such a slow time?

Now scroll down for the answers (it might surprise you)
















10,000m - 20 years (Barcelona Khalid Skah, 27:46.70)
5,000m - 44 years (Mexico Mohamed Gammoudi 14:05.0)

In reply to zoobizooretta: That isn't particularly relevant though is it? Mo Farah will only run the time needed to win a race, he doesn't need to run a fast race to win so why should he?

That is often the nature of long distance racing ie the fastest doesn't always win and championship races often come to a slower tactical race than say a fast race with pacemakers.

In reply to zoobizooretta:

So, are you saying the guy who finished first wasn't best? it was up to the others to beat him, not up to him to give them a chance to beat him.


Gold medal
x2
End of.

In reply to Phil1919:

Read his post - he just querying why the other runners, knowing Farah has the fastest finish didn't go out fast from the start to try and kill off his finishing burst - it's the only way they stood an outside chance of beating him

In reply to denbydale:

They obviously didn't watch the cycling road race.

In reply to Papillon:


obviously not.

David Rudisha showed how to do it in 800m, no pace setters, just blew the rest of the field away and set a new world record in the process.

Keep your eyes on the Great North run, when Mo's up against Haile Gebrselassie



oh talking of 'the best' The Greatest of Them All - Joss Naylor

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joss_Naylor

In reply to zoobizooretta: I was there for Rudisha's 800 and it was incredible. He admitted beforehand he was going to try it, but wasn't sure he could do it without a pacemaker.
However 2 laps is very different from 12.5 or 25 laps.

You're right that in theory the others might have been able to run faster, but they didn't and that is their choice/fault (and often the way of championship races where placings matter more than times).

Rudisha was a country mile better than most of his opposition and dragged them round to fast times, I'm not sure that Mo is that dominant so he ran the race that suited him.

In reply to zoobizooretta: David Rudisha! THE performance of the Olympics IMO.

In reply to Phil1919: It was tactically inept running from Rift Valley AC in the 5k final, but burning it up hasn't worked for Kenya since Ismael Kirui went a long, long way out in world champs 95. Basically the Kenyans loped around waiting for plan B, and the Ethiopians didn't really know what to do without the quickest kicker in the field. So it played into Mo's hands as he can run sub 13 anyway , change pace really well and kick like crazy.

I would think it unjust to say the best man didn't win. You need to be in it to win it, so you need a qualifying time, you need to get round the semis and then he terrified the others into giving him the race he wanted.

Herb Elliott would have won anyway... if we're on the subject of the 'best of all time'.

In reply to wbo:

Agreed - Herb Elliott the supreme 'racer' - never, ever lost a 1,500m/mile race!

In reply to zoobizooretta:

Re Joss, now you are talking... but what about that Kenny Stuart? His 1 02 record for the Snowdon Fell Race (10 miles) IMHO is far more impressive than his stab at marathon running - 2 11 in the Boston Marathon... world class just like Mo, who I reckon could finish off a Bob Graham Round into Keswick on the roads pretty quickly, and I think he could nip up Yewbarrow fairly quickly too.. just a bit misguided about the events he competes in