Europeans. 10000m tonight. Predictions

Stop going on about what the football comentators are saying - what has that got to do with this

As for the comments about other athletes, well there is a bit of a difference when an athlete in their twenties switches nationalities and the BBC commentators are anyway alwatys mentioning that Farah was born in Somalia

Either way it makes no different what the commentators are talking about Farah is British

There was never this fuss over Linford Christie, he came to the UK at 7 Mo at 9 what's the difference?

ukathleticscoach wrote:

Stop going on about what the football comentators are saying - what has that got to do with this

In Coe's biography he mentioned that hearing Mick Channon commentating on the 800m heats in the 1988 Olympics was the final straw and he decided to go on holiday abroad as far away from the Olympics as possible.

ukathleticscoach wrote:

As for the comments about other athletes, well there is a bit of a difference when an athlete in their twenties switches nationalities and the BBC commentators are anyway alwatys mentioning that Farah was born in Somalia

The Brit commentators mentioned that Farah was born in Somalia ONCE, not EVERY SINGLE TIME they mentioned the athlete. Go back on the BBC iplayer and listen to the commentary again. That is the difference and the paradox. They denounce all of the other African immigrants to Euro countries to the extreme. I'm not saying that they should not embrace their own runners (and what is it to be British is another question entirely that we could debate about endlessly) but find it not very tasteful when they disregard other runners (that are in the same situation as Farah) as not really being Spanish or Turkish or Norwegian or whatever because they happened to come there from another country. T

And what is the difference between someone coming to a country when they are 8 or 12 or 18 or 25? Is there an age cut off or something as to when it is appropriate or inappropriate to emigrate? I am confused.

Yes it was:

"For Farah, who celebrated with a dual British-Somali flag..."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/athletics/7913497/European-Athletics-Championships-Dwain-Chambers-breezes-through-100m-heats.html

yes it was wrote:

Yes it was:

"For Farah, who celebrated with a dual British-Somali flag..."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/athletics/7913497/European-Athletics-Championships-Dwain-Chambers-breezes-through-100m-heats.html

It's great that Mo celebrated with the dual flag, reflecting two facets to his identity. It's great that in Britain we allow indivual British winners to celebrate in the way which they choose, reflecting their own characters and identities! (Imagine if we prescribed a particular kind of celebration - how crazy would that be!)

I thought the commentary on the race was balanced and informative. Remember, the BB2 commentary was aimed at a British audience who know and understand Mo's background. Most of the audience wouldn't have known the background of some of the other European athletes so useful facts like "the Spaniard, from Barcelona, running in front of his home crowd" or "the formally Moroccan athlete" or "the German who practices as a doctor" or whatever were interesting and useful.

If being born in Somalian is such an advantage where are all the Somalian distance runners?

The somali flag is sky blue with a white star in the middle, the flag I saw mo with was green white and red??

Not that it realy matters. Great run from mo, looked very strong when he put the hammer down.

The flag was the Somaliland flag, it's an autonomous region in Somalia.

I'm presuming he was told that he wasn't allowed to take it on his lap of honour.

Puntland ? Independent part of somalia in the north east

Thats what I presumed...the camera even panned away when he picked it up...then a few seconds later he reappears with only the union jack... I never realised he had political ambitions as well as running ambitions...has probably landed himself in trouble could have been worse if the british press chose to latch onto it but so far has stayed out of most of the papers...

I once had an impromtu race with Mo Farah's cousin in my local park

I would suggest that the difference is about investment in the athlete. Mo Farah came to Britain very young, with no background in sport. He was encouraged to do sport in a British School, his talent was spotted by a British teacher, he joined a British athletics club. He was coached in Britain and developed through the British system. He has competed for Britain throughout his international career.

This to me is clearly different though an athlete who is 'poached' as a mature athelete. Shaheen was already the best in the world before Qatar adopted him. Is Shaheen as Qatari as Mo is British. I would say no. If the African born athletes running for France/Spain/Germany were adopted by their nation as mature athletes, I would see them as closer to the Shaheen situation than the Farah one. If not, I would say the commentators unfairly highlighted their origins.

bingo jim wrote:

If being born in Somalian is such an advantage where are all the Somalian distance runners?

do you know anything about somalia? look it up.