The George Mills Fall

As others have noted, the timing of the fall seems suspiciously close to when Koech squeezed in a very tight gap, but not sure that was the direct cause. It might have made him hestitate a little, causing a cascading series of events that led to the fall.

The fracture should be well healed by Worlds, and he can certainly train between now & then, but training with the cast is likely to impact the quality of that training. I've had to do it twice and the extra weight does throw you off a little.

Didn't Mills cheat his way through the 5000m at the OG last summer, by "falling" and making a protest?

Just like in traffic, it's the responsibility of those behind to maintain a safe distance.

What often happens is that runners fall into sync with each other’s strides, closing the gap too much. But even the slightest change in pace or rhythm can throw off that timing, leading to clipped heels and potential falls.

The takeaway: keep your distance, pass on the right, or accept the risk of consequences.

While he may not be a fan of drama, it certainly follows him around like Pigpen’s cloud. Brazenness, courage & style are usually well received by fans, but there is something about the addition of petty, insecure reactions of Mills to put me off.

Mark my words, if he makes it to worlds in the 1500 or the 5K, there will be drama surrounding him.

you're a generally astute analyst but i think you're overconfident in your assessment of what happened here. looks to me like myers hit 200 to go and decided he had no space to undertake mills thus starts slowing so he can make space to go round him on the outside. unfortunately - spooked by wightman appearing on their outside - he slightly misjudges and clips mills back leg. in the crucial 10/20 metres mills doesn't seem to really deviate at all.

like many, can't wait to see it come together for myers as he looks full of running, but wouldn't blame this one on grumpy george.

Hey guys!

great angle to watch the fall in this video. somewhere around the 4:38 mark...easy to find. slow it down to .25 speed. a lot to see!

Too much drama threads as usual about runners that probably would have never catch the 4 firsts.

again, hardly any noticeable line deviation in the immediate lead up to the collision. moves from outside of lane 1 to middle at 250 to go but holds his line approaching 200 to go and has his back leg clipped at 195 to go.

if the athlete is clipped from behind and you're not dramatically veering in or out then it's silly to blame them, what was he meant to do? i'm sure he would like to have a bit more explosivity and have been able to go with koech's surge but mills isn't that guy, he doesn't change pace quickly.

ultimately, Mills giving up the inside (BARELY) and Koech taking it, just created a lot of movement that runners aren't used to at that point in a 1500. Nobody really to blame, though it's easy to attack Mills since he's been in these spots before.

Myers was maybe a little aggressive running up on Mills, without the requisite room, but part of that is maybe Nader's pressure from behind.

Saw this alternative view on another thread just posted. Even clearer what happened and someone even pointed it out already.

Look at his positions in lane one at 1200, 1250 and 1300m. End of story.

Agree to disagree. A lane is 4ft. He's moved at least 2ft across the lane from where he is at 1200m to when he gets passed. Koech doesn't even have to change his arm swing to run right through.

Myers aggressive? Its the final 200m of the race where he's probably going to break his NR and he's on the rail with space - space because Mills freely gave it up! There is requisite room because Koech just took advantage of it. Mills just decides after trying to push Kerr wide on a straight and losing his position, he wants it back. It's not okay to do that it's dangerous when guys are running so close together at that speed.

It's not about attacking Mills because he's been in these spots before, it's about looking factually and objectively at the situation and holding someone accountable (though apparently no such thing in the world of 1500m running).

I agree with Salvitore and Slower Traffic on this one; a very nice description. Mills is angling back to the rail as they hit the curve. I don’t see Myers deviating…

One suggestion I’ll add is that it was Kerr rather than Koech who disrupted Mills with 230 to go. Between 4:27-4:32 of the video linked by High School xc Coach, Kerr had been forced out into lane 2 by Mills, but he angles back so that he’s running on top of the lane 1 line. It’s too tight for 3 abreast, and I think Kerr must rub Mills and make him break stride a little. If Koech hadn’t moved up to occupy the inside, this would hardly have mattered; Kerr would just have been steering Mills back to the inside. I couldn’t see any contact with Koech; he seems to accelerate unimpeded through that stretch.

With Mills losing momentum here and probably fading a little, his gap over Myers and Wightman suddenly disappeared, and Myers on the inside had to either slow significantly to let Mills back to the rail or accelerate significantly to keep Mills outside. Myers slowed only a little bit, and Mills was tempted to keep cutting in…

He fell over.

Also, Mills is a pussi.

Seriously, this guy pushes everybody around and when he gets pushed back he falls and blames the world.

He's fallen like 6-7 times in the last couple years, conceniently always when he's not in the top 3.

Here's an even deeper take taking the dynamics of the race and Mills' strategy into context. I'll break it down into 2 parts:, the strategy and the backstretch move; why they both sucked and why it ultimately led to a fall that took out 3 runners:

The Strategy: Mills tried to front-run that race, Jakob-style. But he's not that guy and he's not strong enough to go wire to wire in a 3:28 race like that. He started paying for that strategy with about 300 to go, meanwhile everybody else is winding up. This was his first mistake. Imagine a car going 45 on the interstate when everyone else is doing 80. Yeah, hazard.

The backstretch move(s): Mills hits 1200 on the rail and Kerr pulls up on his outside hip. Mills attempts to hold off Kerr by drifting out, trying to force Kerr to go wide. This is his 2nd mistake. This is another move that he tries to make but it's too early and he's just not strong enough to pull this off from 300 out. He immediately gets blown by Koech on the inside and easily passed by Josh on the outside. At this point Myers, inline with Koech, has almost pulled even with Mills on the inside. Here comes mistake #3. AGAIN, Mills tries to 'box out" Myers this time, so he tries to go back from outside to in. Clips Myers and the rest is history.

Just piss-poor race management all the way around from Mills.

Oh, who did he blame?

^^ exactly right.

Myers looked much better than Kerr at that point.

this is it innit