Why did he feel the need to protest against being 'barged' by Michael East when both runners qualified comfortably to the final? Or was it the Canadian association's decision?
With a 3:38.9 PR he shouldn't have been a threat and thats not the way to deal with threats anyway.
I think it was AC that protested and not Kevin. However, Kevin posts here quite often so perhaps he will shed some light on this incident.
I had nothing to do with the protest.
I found out about the protest as I was waming down on the warmup track after the race. Our team coaches informed me that they filed a protest against East.
I assumed that the protest would be overruled since we both made the final. That is when our coaches told me that they did not file the protest based on loosing a qualifying spot since that did not happen. There is another rule that deals with sportsmenship and that is the rule that our coaches filed under.
Again, I had no knowledge of the protest until after it had been filed. But, if you saw the race, you would understand why the protest was filed. There was aboslutely no reason for what happened as we were both well clear of 5th place when the incident occured.
I think you can put that down to panic (when East looked back) and inexperience on the international scene as it was certainly unecessary barging by the Brit. I would have completely agreed with his disqualification had Sullivan not qualified as the push was totally illegal. I was just wondering why the Candadian association felt the need to protest when both runners had qualified and were unharmed. Thanks for clearing it up Kevin and good luck in getting back to the top where you belong.
Goest, interesting and ironic how you used the phrase "inexperience on the international scene" to describe East because I think he ran nearly a perfect race in the final and made his win look so easy against a pretty good field. Too bad he behaved the way he did in the semis.
Maybe he freaked a little in the semis but his final was one of the most flawless tactical championship runs I've seen. It was perfect and should be used as an example to college 1500 runners. Although maybe I would have thought he'd wait about 10 or 15 more meters he knew exactly what he had in reserve and didn't waste much effort. Struck with exactly 150 to go.
Which leads me to wonder how many times you see guys either stay inside on the rail until they come off the curb as opposed to swinginging wide the entire turn to avoid getting boxed. If you're near the front in good position you know someone is usually going to probably kick hard at 200 to go. Inside would be dicey if you get trapped like Morceli in 92 but in most cases the leader will drift outside to the edge of lane one and someone who holds their kick can shoot straight through on the inside. But that seems to happen by accident more than planned but I've seen it a lot. East moved out I guess with 150 but didn't blast off until the straight so he must of been holding back enought that the extra runningon the turn didn't hurt him. I have it on tape and will watch it again but I remember being strauck how savvy he appeared that last 200.