Is the fix in? Andrew Butchart suddenly withdraws from Birmingham GP -Mo Farah's path to victory just got way easier

Mo came in 7th in the cross country race.

Butchard

Mile 3:54.23 i 1 New York NY, USA Armory Collegiate Invitational 4 Feb 17

3000 7:42.97 i 2 Roxbury MA, USA New Balance Indoor Grand Prix 28 Jan 17

2Miles 8:12.63 i 3 New York NY USA NYRR Millrose Games 11 Feb 17 ( through 3000 in 7:41 )

Three facts here.

And the 4th fact is that this is sickening.

Agree with Rojo- this is a question worth asking. There may be people out there with more inside info or know about a possible precedent.

Why would a Brit skip the biggest home meet of the year without explanation in the shape of his life? His sponsors cannot possibly think that is a good idea. Would have been amazing publicity, even better with Butchart (and Hawkins) being Scottish.

Maybe more of an explanation would have been something like: "resting up for European indoor champs," but he didn't say that either.

Dennis T Reynolds wrote:

This is a nonsensical question and is not even close to the same situation. Are you serious?

You want to talk big time sports? Many NBA stars sit out scheduled games and are uninjured, often announcing it the day of the competition. That goes by with a bit of grumbling from the media and fans (especially when it is Lebron James) but is widely accepted and sometimes even praised (when it is Greg Popovich doing it).

Bad analogy. 1) When it happens in the NBA, people know it's cause they want to rest and it's announced before the game.

2) NBA players play more than 80 games a year. Runners do not.

Ivy League wrote:

Brilliant, Robert. Classic moron Johnson.

[quote]rojo wrote:

It's not fake news. Do you understand punctuation.

Question marks are unnecessary grammar dinosaurs. Anyone who cannot figure if a question is being asked, or a statement is being made, does not deserved to post on the interwebs.

My thoughts are that anyone who think Butchart is a serious rival against a dit Farah over 5000m knows nothing abbaout athletics.

Of course everyone on here know Farah never going to match the career of Bekele. That somehow owe them to project their own failure onto somebody far superior to themselves.

Let's be honest would Mo's brand really be harmed if he lost an indoor race in February?

hendrik wrote:

Why would a Brit skip the biggest home meet of the year without explanation in the shape of his life?

Because it's come to light that there's a nefarious reason for his being in the shape of his life, nudge, nudge, wink, wink, know what I mean?

ukathleticcoachb wrote:

My thoughts are that anyone who think Butchart is a serious rival against a dit Farah over 5000m knows nothing abbaout athletics.

this race isn't about a "dit" Mo Farah. Butchart is likely in the shape of his life. Farah is not.

however, I'll eat my shorts if Farah solos a 7:30 or faster and concede that there was no fix.

nop200 wrote:

Ivy League wrote:

Brilliant, Robert. Classic moron Johnson.

[quote]rojo wrote:

It's not fake news. Do you understand punctuation.

Oh wow… this is perfect.

Also to add to this irony, I just spotted TWO glaring punctuation/grammar errors on the front page!

CGBatch wrote:

Let's be honest would Mo's brand really be harmed if he lost an indoor race in February?

Mo very much enjoys being on the top of the heap of Brits. Remember his comments after Vernon said he was top European at the European Championships, not Farah? So yes, it would very much hurt Farah's brand if he lost a track race to another Brit. When was the last time that happened?

rojo wrote:

Bad analogy. 1) When it happens in the NBA, people know it's cause they want to rest and it's announced before the game.

2) NBA players play more than 80 games a year. Runners do not.

1) This was announced before the meet and could be because he wants to rest. Many times in the NBA it is announced day of the game which is quite poor for fans.

2) Number of contests really doesn't matter. I would argue that is a problem with running in its current state, the complete lack of regular competition.

reed wrote:

ukathleticcoachb wrote:

My thoughts are that anyone who think Butchart is a serious rival against a dit Farah over 5000m knows nothing abbaout athletics.

this race isn't about a "dit" Mo Farah. Butchart is likely in the shape of his life. Farah is not.

however, I'll eat my shorts if Farah solos a 7:30 or faster and concede that there was no fix.

A 7:30 5000m certainly would be impressive.

Butchart would never beat Farah in a 5k. This 8:12 2 mile means NOTHING. Do you lot think that Hill and True would beat Farah in a 5k then, they ran 8:11 the other day?

Farah ran 8:03?!

The point is that this is all very bad publicity for the sport. Some people may well have been very interested in seeing how well Butchart ran against Farah - as several posters have pointed out he is in good track form at present and Farah is ...????

The negative point is the total lack of any explanation about Butchart's withdrawal. If there is a family illness/problem behind it then a brief statement to that effect, without going into any detail, there are things that outsiders have no right to know, would have put an end to all the speculation. This speculation is damaging to the reputation of both Farah and Butchart.

Excuse me wrote:

reed wrote:

this race isn't about a "dit" Mo Farah. Butchart is likely in the shape of his life. Farah is not.

however, I'll eat my shorts if Farah solos a 7:30 or faster and concede that there was no fix.

A 7:30 5000m certainly would be impressive.

Butchart would never beat Farah in a 5k. This 8:12 2 mile means NOTHING. Do you lot think that Hill and True would beat Farah in a 5k then, they ran 8:11 the other day?

Farah ran 8:03?!

When?

wejo wrote:

Related to that general idea, I remember being in Britain and talking about Ryan Hall. Essentially they couldn't believe he hadn't won a major marathon in the US. I said it wasn't easy to win one and they replied something along the lines of "We'd make sure he won one over here."

So I think it's definitely in the realm of questions that are OK for track and field fans talk about. If track was a major sport this would be what people were talking about all day today.

The UK has only has one major marathon and it consistently has the most competitive field of any major marathon including the Championships. Regardless of who said it, this clearly isn't true.

In Farah's one marathon, in London, he lined up against Kipsang, Biwott, Kebede, G Mutai, E Mutai, Lilesa, Kiprotich,etc. Radcliffe had to beat Ndereba, Chepkemei, Dita..

Yeah and came 8th!

ukathleticcoachb wrote:

My thoughts are that anyone who think Butchart is a serious rival against a dit Farah over 5000m knows nothing abbaout athletics.

Of course everyone on here know Farah never going to match the career of Bekele. That somehow owe them to project their own failure onto somebody far superior to themselves.

This sort of patronising, "know your place" fobbing off response reminds me why I have a career in a profession and why UK athletics, despite its recent successes, generally employs placemarkets and ****shit merchants.

If you think anyone capable of genuine logical thinking actually believes that statement above, you have another think coming. People like you and who surround you are simply interested in making money out athletes, and once Mo becomes less bankable, you'll latch onto the next big thing.

Meanwhile, genuine lovers of athletics would actually like to see proper competitive athletics and the best runners competing, not this staged sham type racing. I'm not even motivated to go and see this meeting, and its not far from me. If I were to go, it would be to see proper competitive races, but my disgust at a staged race is what puts me off.

Equally, I'd rather see UK Athletics do what it takes to avoid spats between their athletes, and athletes such as Andy Vernon running at the Worlds in 2014. He's an athlete, not a UN peace ambassador, FFS.

Guesser of 400s wrote:

Excuse me wrote:

A 7:30 5000m certainly would be impressive.

Butchart would never beat Farah in a 5k. This 8:12 2 mile means NOTHING. Do you lot think that Hill and True would beat Farah in a 5k then, they ran 8:11 the other day?

Farah ran 8:03?!

When?

In 2015. There is no doubt Farah still breaks 8:10 easily.

He ran 3:31 in 2016 in a tactical race where he again mixed with 3:28 guys Iguider, Makhloufi and Manangoi (all ran 3:31).

What did Hill, True or Butchart run for 1500m? Farah also ran a solo 12:59 exhibition run. What did the aforementioned run?

Excuse me wrote:

Guesser of 400s wrote:

When?

In 2015. There is no doubt Farah still breaks 8:10 easily.

He ran 3:31 in 2016 in a tactical race where he again mixed with 3:28 guys Iguider, Makhloufi and Manangoi (all ran 3:31).

What did Hill, True or Butchart run for 1500m? Farah also ran a solo 12:59 exhibition run. What did the aforementioned run?

Considering that Butchart is still a number of years younger than when Mo Farah started winning decent races, and is a long way ahead of him at the same age, I'd like to see them given the chance to actually compete and improve through racing.

Is there any possibility of athletes being instructed to lose races, or not run for their best personal position? Does it happen? Not in this instance. Obviously.