Robert Farken: The contact with Cole Hocker "wouldn't have made any difference"

sport1.de

Leichtathletik-WM: Dramatische deutsche Wende, aber kaum Freude!

Ein Protest bringt Robert Farken ins WM-Finale – doch seine Freude ist gedämpft. Der 1500-Meter-Spezialist erklärt, warum er die Szene mit Cole Hocker im Nachhinein kritischer sieht als direkt nach dem Rennen.

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SPORT1: Then came the scene with Hocker. How did you experience the situation?

Farken: In the replay, you can see very clearly how unfairly Hocker asserted himself and how much he threw me off my rhythm. That robbed me of all my energy and ultimately played a decisive role in my not finishing higher.

SPORT1: Immediately after the race, you said on ARD that you wouldn't have made it to the final even without the collision...

Farken: I didn't see it that way during the race itself. But from what it looks like in the video, it would have actually been enough for the top 6. And so I believe I deserve to be in the final and belong there.

I think Farken has been nothing but class during this whole ordeal. Kudos to him for his professionalism.

Wejo- could you edit the title of this? You seem to share the same opinion as I, but the misspelling of his name almost spells “Robber”, which I also don’t think was your intention, but some hardcore Hocker fans might.

it was not incidental. PLEASE STOP

im okay with saying "it didn't make a difference in who was going to make finals." but let's be honest here.

And yet he was reinstated to the final, along with Riva (the Italian) who cruised it in 37 seconds back... Woke nonsense

LOL "incidental".

Hocker looked to his right, saw it was crowded, and realised his only option was to force his way between Farken and Nillessen. It was a spur of the moment decision but it was intentional.

So, your argument is that an athlete running faster than someone in front of them should be able to just shove that slower athlete out of the way?

I'm going to say it once again: Farken had track position because Hocker screwed the pooch, got himself boxed, and let too many others past him earlier in the final lap. It doesn't matter one iota that Farken was slowing down. Hocker has to find a way through cleanly or reap the consequences of his poor tactics. It sucks for him, sucks for US fans, but the sport needs rules or it will be chaos. If they let this slide, it sets a precedent and it's open season in future races

Hocker tried to create space (and he did) by going where no man had gone before (or something like that). As many have said, if he had been more patient or Farken had already dropped back, then he may have been fine. But at the moment he tried to get between the two of them, he was at fault as the space was not there, which is why he had to contort his body to slide between them.. Many immediately thought (as did I) that a dq was a probability. He did the crime, so he has to do the time.

Once that tall dude in the orange singlet jumped in front of Cole I knew it was going to be trouble. I'm more mad about that than I am the foul with Farken.

Not sure what that guy thought he was doing by making that move. You've got the Olympic champ to key off of. No reason to go by unless you think you're going to blow everyone away from that far out. I know a lot of you will disagree, but this another conversation about unwritten rules. I don't cut off the Olympic champ in that situation, but that's just me. This gets into a debate about winning by disadvantaging someone else vs just flat out running faster than them. It's like knocking someone else down vs raising yourself up. I understand that it was most likely unintentional, but it still has basically yields the same result as if it was intentional. I guess you could say it's anybody's race and you have to protect your position, but imagine accelerating to jump in front of Jakob with a lap to go and then coming in 2nd to last and taking him out with you. You've got to know he's going to have trouble getting back out that situation. I don't see how you can't know that at this level.

In any case, Cole can't let that happen. Not sure if he was hurting in that moment and didn't want to cover the move, but that's what ultimately put him in this situation with Farken.

It was an easy DQ.

White American drug cheat gets excused by LRC.

Where have we seen that before?

Oh dear. This is what you’ve become?

It makes no difference whether it affected the outcome for Farken. It was a DQ offence.

Farken is a good soul. God bless him. Now it's time for the official to make the right call.

How the hell is this woke? The Farken guy is German, for Chrissakes.

Woke? LOL

It didn't make a difference to Farken, but it did to Hocker if he hadn't barged through he would have missed out on top 6 and neither would have qualified.

I just assumed Farken was being polite. Whether he would’ve qualified or not, you can see in the video that he starts going backwards immediately after Hocker passes him.

How much is Nike paying him to say this