Not Farah certified: Mo Farah pulls out of the 2014 Commonwealth Games 10,000 and 5,000

Geb knows man. Gods know stuff like that. Geb>allah even though he doesn't say it himself. Don't run marathons, mo.

It's About the Euros/Pounds/$ wrote:

fsdjhc wrote:

In the 5&10, I wouldn't describe EC gold as more prestigious than CG gold these days.

In a commercial money sense for athletes, sponsors, etc, EC gold is more prestigious, and that's what it's all about.

That makes no sense.

The better competition for events of 800m - 10,000m is at the Commonwealth Games.

Winning there is more impressive.

Trying to run 100% before you are fully ready can mess up the rest of your season. No one except Farah can know how ready he is.

And at this point we don't know what races Farah might choose to run after European Championships. Maybe he meets up with the top Diamond Leaguers then.

We do know that Bolt has planned the rest of his season so that he won't face Gatlin, choosing to run the 100m at Zurich in which he knows Gatlin won't be invited.

FSM wrote:

It's About the Euros/Pounds/$ wrote:

In a commercial money sense for athletes, sponsors, etc, EC gold is more prestigious, and that's what it's all about.

That makes no sense.

The better competition for events of 800m - 10,000m is at the Commonwealth Games.

Winning there is more impressive.

Maybe, but Europeans ain't interested and in T&F that's where most of the money is.

Deep-fried Quadriceps wrote:

Mo is missing Baby Internationals? Gadzooks! Pox upon him and fie on his misdeeds!

I won't lie--I laughed.

So what's happened in the last week that is so drastically different he's had to pull out? Clearly he's in good enough shape to race if training was going "good" as he says. Maybe not 100% London double gold shape, but clearly good enough.

Maybe not good enough to handle a very fit Willis, who can surely run 2:27 on end of a tactical race here

One week he is fine and now a pull out after Willis 3:29.91? and a 7:36 a bit ago?

If a distance runner shows up at 95%, even at Farah's level, that is the difference between 1st and 10th place. If an NFL player shows up at 95% he can still look 100% because he plays for 6sec, rests for 30sec. Then someone can sub for him if he is really rough. Nobody is going to sub for Farah from lap 11-20. A required schedule for runners is what the AAU did back in the 70s. That worked out poorly for the runners. Maybe track was more popular then, but it is doubtful that was the reason.

It's About the Euros/Pounds/$ wrote:

In a commercial money sense for athletes, sponsors, etc, EC gold is more prestigious, and that's what it's all about.

yes as posters have alluded to, the euros are easier and have prestige and will help recover his $$$ value

he has nothing to gain getting beat by kenyans in glasgow

how fast have the kenyans run this year that mo was going to race..????

Can you imagine an NFL athlete skipping a playoff game because he's not 100%? Of course not.

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That's a team game and you can afford to be at 90%

Yet in track, everything is basically practice for the athletes except for the major championships and for the very top stars like Farah, i guess Commonwealths at home in the UK don't even count - the only championship that truly matters is the Olympics/Worlds.

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Might agree if he had not pulled out of several races recently

Track and field is largely a sport that results in the top stars being paid for being their own brand. I guess it's better for the brand of Mo Farah and Usain Bolt to not race at all than it is to race and maybe finish second or third.

But it's not good for the sport.

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Was Paula running with a stress fracture in the Olympics good for the sport. Did the press say well done for running on a broken bone. Like hell they did

I'm use there will be some former Ethiopians as competition there. It little to do with it being the Commonwealths, if the Europeans were first he'd have pulled out of that

Would it really add to that sport watching an unfit Farah get beaten. Having won multiple world titles he owes this country nothing

mark b wrote:

The east Europeans in the "bad old days" used to test their athletes just before major champs to ensure no embarrassing positives emerged at the games. There were usually some very late withdrawals. Looking at the GB athletes (not just Farah) who have pulled out of the Commonwealth Games it would be easy for a cynic to get a little bit suspicious!!

Who else?

wrote:

In a commercial money sense for athletes, sponsors, etc, EC gold is more prestigious, and that's what it's all about.

No.

Not for a Brit.

CGs are real big for England, NZ, Canada, Oz. The A teams will be sent.

Rojo makes some valid points. I have no idea about Mo’s health or fitness, but the sport would be better served without all the hidden ball tricks when it comes to scheduling and start lists. We’re skeptical about the timing of this announcement because we’ve seen it all before—over and over and over again. How often have we seen meet directors go out of their way to set up multiple heats so that two star sprinters don’t have to race head-to-head? Or what about the athlete who fulfills his or her obligation to compete in a meet, but then announces that he or she has decided to run an off event? You don’t see that in swimming. Phelps and Lochte go head-to-head all the time. They don’t run away from the challenge. They embrace it.

Look at some of the best stuff we’ve seen on the track this summer. James and Merritt banging on each other in the 400? Scintillating stuff. Bondarenko and Barshim in the high jump? Ditto. We’ve even seen Huddle and Rowbury go at it twice in the 5k and both were compelling races. Rivalries not only create better athletes, they help sell the sport. Makes no difference if it’s a team sport or an individual sport. The sport of boxing, for example, could have literally picked itself off the canvas had it somehow figured out a way to get its two biggest stars, Mayweather and Pacquiao, into the ring at the same time. Instead, it continues to die a slow, miserable death.

Mo Farah = the next Ryan Hall

Hahahahaha no way...Ryan Hall hasn't done anything significant in like 2 and a half years at least Farah is remaining on a world class level. Ryan Hall sucks nowadays haha

The standard of awesome wrote:

Geb>allah even though he doesn't say it himself.

I'm not sure what that means. Geb is a devout Christian.

God, what pussies some of these "professional" runners are. I completely understand why these guys pull out of races, but they're still pussies for doing it. This sport is doomed.

Dude is a beast. Is it possible he uses an altitude tent?

Rising Sun wrote:

That depends on the athlete, for example look at Yuki Kawauchi, the dude hammers out sub 2-10 marathons every month or so and has been doing so over the last few years. With a full time job as well, no altitude training, cryosaunas etc ...

Sub240 wrote:

Biggest mistake with Marathons is to resume training to quickly afterwards. Can't blame Farah as it was his first but Salazar should have known better.

She Ducks wrote:

wrote:

In a commercial money sense for athletes, sponsors, etc, EC gold is more prestigious, and that's what it's all about.

No.

Not for a Brit.

CGs are real big for England, NZ, Canada, Oz. The A teams will be sent.

So big that last year Farah said GCs "is not on my list".

So big that only Gold Coast and Hambantota (yep that's right, Hambantota) bid for 2018. There's talk they could be scrapped after that as there's concerns of no bidders for 2022.

Good post. Track is hard to follow sometimes because of how rarely the big names race each other at the same time.