Mo Farah gets his payback - Andy Vernon not named to 2015 British Worlds Team despite having standard

Whatever the right or wrongs about the other empty spaces on the team, Vernon seems to have paid the price for his public spats with Sharp and Farah. And his omission looks like the right decision.

Without those incidents, you'd have to think he'd be going. The athletes he fell out with are just more important to the British chances of success in Beijing than he is. Particularly Farah, obviously. If British Athletics want an environment for their athletes that is conducive to producing medal winning performances, leaving out a guy who they do not have to pick, and who has rubbed members of the team up the wrong way is a no brainer.

The public spat he had with Sharp happened as he was about to compete as part of the same team at the Europeans. It didn't make him look like the greatest team player. Fair enough, he apologised, won his medals at Europeans and he can learn from that mistake. Move on. But then he's in the news again the following year in a public twitter exchange with Britain's most successful current athlete. Even when that row looks finished, he's cracking jokes at Farah's expense online. Whatever his opinions, and whoever is right or wrong he didn't appear to learn anything from the unnecessary incident with Sharp. If he was a medal favourite, British Athletics would have to make allowances to fit him in. As he isn't they don't.

I've read a lot of comments today from runners criticising this as a purely political decision. However, his downfall appears to be of his own making. If the decision was taken that the GB squad is stronger without him, not because of his performances but because of his history of avoidable very public spats with higher profile members of the team then who is to blame for that?

Ok, no one has answered why Lennie Waite 'should' be left off the team.

I thought a big part of UK and the Olympics was about the legacy. People are worried about obesity, etc. It seems though that instead of inspiring people to "be active, dream high and be the best they can" , the message they are sending is, "Only shoot for the Olympics if you can be top 8."

It's just stupidity. If money REALLY is the issue, I'm sure the athletes would pay their own way. I'm serious. LetsRun.com will pay for Lenny Waite to run the steeple if UK Athletics needs the money.

Not EVERY club athlete wrote:

Without those incidents, you'd have to think he'd be going.

If the Scottish people had voted for Labour rather than SNP he might be going. As it is the Tories are destroying the legacy of 2012.

Randy Oldman wrote:

If the Scottish people had voted for Labour rather than SNP he might be going. As it is the Tories are destroying the legacy of 2012.

The Scottish people have bigger concerns than Andy fecking Vernon.

UK Limey elsewhere wrote:

Randy Oldman wrote:

If the Scottish people had voted for Labour rather than SNP he might be going. As it is the Tories are destroying the legacy of 2012.

The Scottish people have bigger concerns than Andy fecking Vernon.

No, he's right. Scotland's voting SNP was block revenge voting for the Vernon's twitter attack on Lynsey Sharp.

reed wrote:

it's not even like they found a better candidate. they are just sending two people instead of three.

Actually, they are allowed to send four, Farah has a bye plus they can send three more.

If the average company can send employees to travel all over just for meetings you think a country can foot the bill to have more people represent the nation and develop their sport.

Is England a third world country or something?

rojo wrote:

Ok, no one has answered why Lennie Waite 'should' be left off the team.

I thought a big part of UK and the Olympics was about the legacy. People are worried about obesity, etc. It seems though that instead of inspiring people to "be active, dream high and be the best they can" , the message they are sending is, "Only shoot for the Olympics if you can be top 8."

It's just stupidity. If money REALLY is the issue, I'm sure the athletes would pay their own way. I'm serious. LetsRun.com will pay for Lenny Waite to run the steeple if UK Athletics needs the money.

Back in the day (I assume this is still valid) Athletics Canada would get knocked by the Sport Canada if the squad size to top-16/8/medal ratio was poor at Worlds/Olympics. So, you trim the bottom of your roster as best as you can to boost that ratio. It's why the athletes cannot pay their way. If it costs $5k to send Waite, she raises $5k, UK Athletics isn't out anything... until UK Sport counts the numbers at Worlds and compares it to the results. Then they cut funding by an amount, lets pretend $10k. So while Waites gets her trip and the trip costs UK Athletics nothing at the time, when the new budget comes out they will have $10k less to waste on administration.

Problem is andy vernon has not run well since the end of May. He ran 27.42 at Payton and then 28.3x to win the Bupa 10k on the road. Since then hes not run under 13.40 for 5k and only ran outside 7.50 for 3k. I think had he showed any kind of form in his last couple of races he would be on the plane. He may have been selected had no not had his twitter spats with Sharpe and Farah as well but unfortunately he made the decision easy for them in the end.

The problem is theres no consistency. Chris O'hare has been picked. he was top 3 in the trials and has 1 qualifying standard. apart from his recent 3.34 he has only run 3.38 this year. No offence to him but hes not a top 8 performer and that 3.34 high is his pb 8 secs down on kiprops. I personally think he should go but why then has lenny waite not gone? she has won the trials and run one standard as well. yes shes only run 9.40 but is that any further away than 3.34 high in the mens 1500 which is way more competitive.

And then theres vernon. you could say hes not really in form. But his race isnt until 22nd august. that gives him nearly 4 weeks of training. hes clearly not injured as he is currently racing. he won euro silver last year and ran 27.42 this year.

its the fact the selection policy is so vague that allows the selectors to pick whoever they want. i dread to think what will happen when farah retires.

At least the relay squads are always full and with absolutely zero chance of ever doing anything.

You don't understand the game if you're complaining about the relay squads. The relay squads will always be full and will always go because they compete against such weak fields compared to the individual competitors. In London, there were only 17 men's teams in the 4x100m. Also in London, women's steeple had 44 competitors.

Economically speaking, GBR is approaching a second world country. They are not an economic super-power, are struggling to pay off debt from London 2012, and are suffering with exports.

So, yes, they need to watch their budget.

Steph Twell has only run the 5000 time once but her coach is on the selection panel. If it is down to money why does British Athletics send athletes to Mickey Mouse events like World 100km, World 50km etc... minority events with little depth, simple reason is the performances make them look good to those outside the sport who know nothing about it and make judgements simply on 'placings' at wold level regardless of the standards.

The real reason he isn't going is because he has a very wide mouth:

http://news.images.itv.com/image/file/450648/image_update_img.jpg

the real reason wrote:

The real reason he isn't going is because he has a very wide mouth:

http://news.images.itv.com/image/file/450648/image_update_img.jpg

Looks like a neaderthal throwback. Maybe he couldn't pass a genetic test.

Bramaterra wrote:

Economically speaking, GBR is approaching a second world country. They are not an economic super-power, are struggling to pay off debt from London 2012, and are suffering with exports.

So, yes, they need to watch their budget.

Economically speaking, GBR is the fifth largest economy in the world. I think they can swing a flight to China.

Sir Gideon Petrie wrote:

He ain't happy:

https://twitter.com/andyvernongb

Political Correctness rules the day. FACT: If a non-white athlete fired off the most racist tirade imaginable against whites, the PC driven weak whytes in this thread would do nothing, say nothing.

Steph Twell has run the selection time for the 5000m the required two times.

I'm not actually convinced at the policy in requiring distance runners to run the selection time twice anyway. Do they want the athletes to be burnt out when they run at the Championships, or to peak?

Agreed its the sheer inconsistency and Vernon is being punished.

The Brits are leaving a lot of talented athletes out who would gain from the experience. Men's distance running in the UK, with the exception of Mo Farah, is in dire straits and their policies have been continually proven over the years not to work. How many potentially good athletes are being discouraged from taking the sport seriously by a lack of role models?

Regarding the funding, is what appears to be a politically correct obsession in the UK with Paralympic athletes detracting from the funding from the able bodied? Look at the numbers of para athletes on lottery funding:

Take out the relay athletes, and there are 5 more individual Paralympic athletes on the higher level of Olympic funding than able bodied!

Rojo - I like the sprit! Let's have a Letsrun kick-starter for British Athletics! I'm a former steeplechaser and would like to support this young lady to participate in the World Championship (even if she is British!).

Its funny Robert, you contribute majorly to stirring up a hornets nest with Vernon,

Then you cant understand why he got stung .....

Vernon getting the shaft because of a twitter argument? A little bit of trash talking is good for the sport. Despite what many of you think, Vernon has trained most of his life to be on these teams. And comparatively, he actually isn't a bad runner. Can he be top 8 in the Olympics, probably not. Should he be on the team? Absolutely.

Anyone that says "he made his own bed" or "he deserves to be left off the team" because of some stupid twitter arguments- should have their head examined. Additionally, anyone who has made these decrees should exit this sport forever. Period. With all the rampant drug abuse and cheaters NOW we are castrating a guy for using TWITTER?

Seriously, please leave this sport. You are done here. You have helped in part to be the downfall of this sport.

If you are reading this and you have posted in this thread that a man should be left off his national team only for the reason that he had a twitter argument, you need to find a new sport.