Mo Ahmed - Avila fall : Ahmed should be sanctioned in some way

Yeah I appreciate the volunteers at track meets but if you have an important job as a starter for instance, you should be competent. This starter is not competent at all and needs to be the one suspended or relegated to other duties. Embarrassing.

We have have a reflex called “protective extension” where if we fall we put our hands out to catch ourselves so we don’t fall on our faces.

From the video at the start it looks like Mo’s hands get tangled up with Wynne and Avila when he moves his hands/arms backwards

Then theres shoving back and forth.

ALSO- it looks like 7 Scott is leaning into/blocking Wynne possibly pushing Wynne into Mo

When all this commotion is happening Centro is aware because he looks over his shoulder to his right

The guy in the yellow jersey on the outside also sees this happening and is looking to his left

Not sure what the current ruling is but I thought if anyone falls in the 1st 100m the race gets called back and restarted.

LOL Avilia is scheduled to be the pacer for one of the 5000 sections tonight. Lets see if he mugs anyone in this start

I'm (and he's) referring to the slow-motion part of RoJo's video, specifically the part that starts at 40 seconds on the video.

we need Zola Budd wrote:

rojo wrote:

Then look at the 42-43 second mark in the slow motion video

weak sauce from Mo wrote:

OP here. Doesn't matter what happened before 40 seconds.

I think Rojo meant to say 4.2 to 4.3 second mark. By 40 seconds it was long over.

At the meet.

Ahmed and Avila cooled down with each other afterwards. Doesn't look like bad blood. Ahmed got treatment and looked like the medic was treating his wrist.

My view was that Ahmed is tiny and lost control in a busy race and went down. Not much Avila or Ahmed could do other than just yield the position/Ahmed weigh 20 more lbs so he doesn't get rag dolled.

He's out of control because he was elbowed and shoved around by Avila pretty hard right at the start. He then does his best to right himself, and just as he's done that, Avila hits him with a nice shoulder check trying to cut in wayyyy too early. Ahmed obviously goes down and takes Avila with him.

So yeah, Moh is probably the most at fault here, but he was doing nothing wrong until he was pushed to the ground. Then as he's falling he retaliates.

So easy to tell who the racists are. Not sure why USATF brings in a clueless starter. Starters should be evaluated like officials from other leagues.

They are both running at 8:10pm Pacific Time tonight in another heat of the 1500.

ReplayReplay wrote:

We have have a reflex called “protective extension” where if we fall we put our hands out to catch ourselves so we don’t fall on our faces.

From the video at the start it looks like Mo’s hands get tangled up with Wynne and Avila when he moves his hands/arms backwards

Then theres shoving back and forth.

ALSO- it looks like 7 Scott is leaning into/blocking Wynne possibly pushing Wynne into Mo

When all this commotion is happening Centro is aware because he looks over his shoulder to his right

The guy in the yellow jersey on the outside also sees this happening and is looking to his left

Not sure what the current ruling is but I thought if anyone falls in the 1st 100m the race gets called back and restarted.

this same thing happened to me during my D3 running days by a teammate

i recall a similar thing happening in a diamond league race

` wrote:

Looking at this more closely, you can see Avila on the start line throw two huge elbows to Moh and the other guy beside him (ostensibly to clear space for himself). This obviously knocks the much lighter Ahmed off balance, then Avila tries to cut in hard on Ahmed AGAIN, basically pushing him to the ground. As Ahmed is falling he grabs Avila's jersey.

Obviously Ahmed should be the bigger person here, but Avila was being a total dick in the first 50m, so I don't blame him for exacting some revenge.

That’s the way I saw it as well.

Tall Tree wrote:

` wrote:

Looking at this more closely, you can see Avila on the start line throw two huge elbows to Moh and the other guy beside him (ostensibly to clear space for himself). This obviously knocks the much lighter Ahmed off balance, then Avila tries to cut in hard on Ahmed AGAIN, basically pushing him to the ground. As Ahmed is falling he grabs Avila's jersey.

Obviously Ahmed should be the bigger person here, but Avila was being a total dick in the first 50m, so I don't blame him for exacting some revenge.

That’s the way I saw it as well.

Agreed. Avila's fault for pushing Mo around. Pretty obvious leading up to him trying to stay on his feet.

When I saw this live I didn’t know who Avila was but my first reaction was man that guy trucked Ahmed and they should have called it back

From all the longer videos I’ve seen Avila slams Ahmed and knocks him off balance, the slow motion shows him trying to regain his balance and it looks bad in slow motion but in real time still trying to run fast he had no chance to ever get upright and was going down. Not his fault he grabbed the jersey in that situation anyone would instinctively just grab and he’s probably focused on not hurting himself on the way down and didn’t realize he was bringing Avila down until it was too late

we dont care

Star wrote:

Why didn’t the officials call them back?

duck sauce wrote:

That’s my question, too.

You can do a recall in the first 100m if there is a fall and that was only 30 m in.

` wrote:

pizza on a bagel wrote:

Mo got bounced at the start between Avila and Blonde guy. Impossible to tell whose fault. Normally that would be the end of it.

Mo then clearly deviates from his line —hard— into Avila and Avila rightly defends his space. Mo then collars Avila around the neck (this is the most aggressive in-race exploit I have ever seen in 30 years of track) and pulls him to the track.

Ahmed was the one who did not hold his line.

I thought we’d see fisticuffs when they got up.

Moh doesn't actually deviate from his line at all. In fact he's trying hard to stay within his space after being pushed over by Avila. Then, Avila tries to cut in AGAIN by shoving Ahmed. Then, down he goes, and he drags Avila with him. An eye for an eye.

Have watched many races where a runner who really came to race is falling and reaches out to stabilize, hoping to save themselves in the moment. That’s what I saw here. Without interviews or mind-reading, that’s my analysis.

The caption of the video says Centro won the Olympics gold in Rio 2018. Did he run his own Olympics then?

After watching this clip at least 20 times, it seems that the guy in bright yellow (Wynne?) Was jockeying Ahmed. Ahmed was wrong in taking down Avila who wasn't involved until he was taken down..but it started with the bright yellow guy.

I just watched it again. No way should he be sancioned.

https://twitter.com/OutofAthletics/status/1393652241911873536

love how the announcer said it was a fair start like a second into the race while arms are flailing