5000m heats falls, shoves and failures catch-up guide

Very messy heats there just wondering how it'll go with 20 in the final

Have to note Stewy was definitely impeded by the falls and lost momentum otherwise he was right near Fafard and Gressier into the strait

Thanks for this - very helpful

Slept through the heats (they were like 3am here) and was very confused as to how Nur, Grijalva, Ahmed, etc, were as far behind as they were

100% should have been 3 heats.

Jakob looked great

I thought Mills was fully at fault but you're right. no DQ for him or Hay

He'd want to drop the hard man act.

This stuff happens way too often with him

Agree. 20 in a race a heat no less looking for trouble. Even 4 heats with 4 advancing from each heat would e better than this. Also lower the standard time to get rid of the field size. 13:00.00

Let’s give credit to the guys whose legs were taken out from under them and DIDN’T go and “furiously push” the guy who did it to them. I like that Lobalu for one rolled on the track and got up to finish in 14:15, six seconds behind the auto-qualifiers. Not a fan of Mills’s vibes tbh.

Ahmed of course has a reputation for wreaking havoc on the track, and it’s kinda funny that like 150 meters before he fell he clipped someone and Rowbury noted “Ooh, he almost went down” and then ~20 seconds later it’s like “Okay now Ahmed’s on the ground fr”. Both he and Nur have rather rangy running mechanics which can’t help when running in tight traffic.

Blanks was evidently a wee bit disappointed by the falls because he wanted to have the “real results of the race” as he said to Lewis Johnson. I like to think he would have qualified regardless but it would have been close. When Lewis asked what it was like to get the call confirming he was on the team, he paid his respects to Parker Wolfe and said he was running for him, too—I imagine Lewis was thinking “Who tf is Parker Wolfe?”

Lots of guys who could snag silver and bronze, including Grant Fisher, but Jakob winning gold seems like all but a foregone conclusion. Hopefully someone will be compelled to make it an honest pace, or a 20-man final could get stupid.

I can’t see what you see with Mills and Hay, though NBC switches cameras at exactly the wrong instant to see exactly what happened with their arms. Maybe you’ve seen better footage. But I only see Hay upright and then deflecting to the infield, not leaning to the right and shoving. I see mills deflecting outward with Hay’s elbow still down. They’d been arm wrestling for about 4 seconds (initiated by Mills moving from the outside of the lane while Hay held position). I think their arms just got thoroughly tangled trying to occupy the same space. The very last contact was perhaps 50% Hay’s fault, as he seemed to be starting to angle from the rail to the middle of the lane. They were both targeting the gap opening between Blanks and Kurgat ahead of them. At this point they both were trapped on the inside in positions 7-10, with Lobalu and Ndikumwenayo with clear paths outside them, and I think hitting that gap was the best option for each. Also a lap before, Mills stumbled seemingly untouched. His spikes might have caught somehow then. If anything like that contributed, it would be very hard to see.

i wouldn’t advance Mills; he made his own trouble. The two he hit plus Foppen were the victims.

I think the lack of time qualifiers are as much to blame as the size of the heats. There's zero incentive in a 5000 heat for anyone to push the pace. The favorites want a slow pace to save themselves for the final (even if they risk falling). The back of the pack wants a slow pace because a chaotic finish makes it more likely they can sneak in.

Why have there been so many falls recently? Seems way higher than normal rates.

Too big of a field and too slow of a pace. This happens a lot in NCAA races slower than 14:00 as well.

Hay from France was 100% responsible for the group of 4 falling in Heat 1. Cut off Mills without being clear of him, and then Mills went down, which then took out the others.

Specific to these two 5000m heats, in the last 800 of both the giant packs went 5 wide at multiple points. Those "coming around" tuck back into lane 1 and 2 and slow down ever so slightly relative to the acceleration they just put in. This creates a wave effect for those boxed into the pack in lanes 1 and 2 (you can see it with the naked eye). In the last 400 everyone that is boxed in also now has the frantic reaction of trying to shoot gaps inside, instead of going backwards, then out, then around.

Nordas and Ingie did not want any of those shenanigans and smartly ran a hard last 1200 out front. All the coin flip guys hoping for a good day rolled the dice saving for a 400 burn up and some paid the price of that mid pack risk. Mo Ahmed is the posterboy for paying that risky price on this day. For all the hate he is getting from past issues, he didnt cause anyone grief today, and just lost his concentration regarding his own long stride length inside the pack. Maybe it was the 10,000m in his legs, but he'll be kicking himself for not going to the front earlier. 33 years old, thats it for him.

Sent to racewalking - definitely the worse option.

2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th fastest of the last two seasons are not there. What an event.

So infuriating. Not that I wanted anyone's race to be impeded, but he really deserved to be knocked flat on his ass by one of the runners.

I'm British and I'd 100% agree with this, to me it looks like they are both jostling for the same space and there's no obvious push from Hay, he just holds his space and Mills gets sent absolutely flying which looks bizarre to watch. Agree with the decision to advance the other fallers but I'd not have advanced Mills, it's at least half his fault and he initiates the pushing before the contact that leads to the fall. Mills' attitude is shocking as well, I get being wound up but not accepting an apology and a friendly gesture is awful.

Any word on Luis G? I know he was hurt in the fall but he ran a PR of 12:50/1 not that long ago

He wasn’t even in it before Abdi went down.

Also this is probably an unpopular opinion, but if there are more than 3 guys that fall between the two heats, I think no one should advance.

I guess the first heat was more egregious, but if there were only falls in the 2nd heat, they probably would’ve gone through. So how is it fair that one heat gets 4?

There was carnage in heat 1, and a fall in heat 2. These heats had 16 in them.
the solution is to put 20 into the final? We are basically guaranteed several falls.