Emma Chure
Well, for one thing people don't really give much of a crap about the women here unless they're American and hot. But that aside...
Dibaba's time sucks given what she's done on the track. A 2:18 should have been a given. Instead, she doesn't even win the race.
See, her race is analogous to Farah's, in almost every way. Her performance was probably "off" compared to her track times to about the same degree. But it was a debut, so she gets a break, right? Well, yeah. But Farah doesn't.
Here's the deal. If Farah had the exact same palette of performances going in but had never run for Salazar, people wouldn't be ripping his effort today. Most of the folks saying it was a disappointment in some way, from mild to severe, would be saying "Well, he could have done better, but 2:08:21 is a fine debut." Why? Because no one here is really looking this is a Farah race. They're essentially seeing it as a Salazar race and people hate Salazar. So do I and I wish the whole NOP would implode, visibly and tragically and in a nicely ugly way.
Really, I think Farah will run under 2:06 one day. I don't think he can ever run with the best of the best -- he clearly isn't physiologically wired to do so, any more than Kipsang and Mutai and Kebede are wired to run under 27:00 (well, I'm on the fence about that, but 26:40 is out of the question).
Salazar sucks but Farah ran an OK race today. Really. Doesn't much matter but it seems worth noting that the critics here are posting with one virtual hand wrapped around Al Sal's throat.