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Mo Farah has brought British track distance running into the 21st century, with his 10,000 metres victory in 26.46.57, in Eugene on Friday night. It was clear from his sub-13min 5000 metres time (12.57.94) last year that Farah could equally go sub-27min
Globe Runner blog » Butcher’s Blog – Articles by Pat Butcher – 21st CENTURY MO – Farah sets the pace
Mo Farah has brought British track distance running into the 21st century, with his 10,000 metres victory in 26.46.57, in Eugene on Friday night.
It was clear from his sub-13min 5000 metres time (12.57.94) last year that Farah could equally go sub-27min for the 25 lapper. But even more impressive than the 42 seconds he took off his previous best, itself a winning race, was that he also won in Eugene; and against a slew of world and Olympic medallists too.
It's one thing to be dragged to a fast time by superiors, but as Peter Coe said of his son, Seb's developmental period, ‘In terms of age records, he didn't rank; but he won, he won so much'. And that ultimately is the crux of competition.
However, beyond the fact that Farah also revised both the British record, by over 30 seconds, and the European best, by six seconds; and that he is also European champion at 5000/10,000 metres, this latest performance still needs to be put into a global perspective.
Let's get one thing out of the way first. There will be those who cavil that, like the former European record holder, the Moroccan-born Belgian Mohamed Mourit, Farah isn't really a Brit. But, having moved to the UK from Somalia at the age of eight, and been nurtured entirely within the remnants of the UK school/club athletics system (he has only recently moved to the USA), he is as British as bully beef; whatever that is.
But Farah's time is good only for 14th fastest in history, and he is close to 25 seconds behind the world record of Kenenisa Bekele, ie one whole second per lap. On the other hand Farah's time is the fastest since Bekele's world title winning time of two years ago.
How much this latest breakthrough for Farah owes to the honing that he went to seek in the USA, it is hard to assess at this juncture, if ever. But, he is certainly far likelier to enjoy competitive training in Portland than he would in the UK, where the situation that I referred to above, ie the remnants of the school/club athletics system, is dire.
At its most basic, the US college/university system, with coaches having long returned to a volume training base, with dozens of undergrads running sub-four miles and sub-13.30 5ks; and groups like Alberto Salazar's, poised to take those dozens of undergrads onto the next level, shows up the UK (and the rest of Europe) for the distance running deserts they have become.
All of this inside two or three generations.
The precursors were Dave Bedford, Brendan Foster and Ian Stewart who, between them set world records, including the 10,000 metres, and won European and Commonwealth titles and Olympic medals in the 1970s.
By the time that Dave Moorcroft ran within a whisker of sub-13mins for 5000 metres, nevertheless setting a new world record, of 13.00.42, in Oslo in 1982, British middle distance runners ruled the world.
Steve Ovett was Olympic 800 metres champion, Seb Coe was Olympic 1500 metres champion; the pair of them dominated the world records for those events, and the mile. Moorcroft had won the Commonwealth 1500m title in 1978, and the upcoming Steve Cram was going to win it in late 1982, and also take the European title (which Ovett had won in 1978), with Moorcroft winning the Commonwealth 5000m and taking bronze in the Euro Champs.
In addition, two Scots, Graham Williamson and John Robson were also in the world's top five milers.
Cram would add the world 1500 metres title in 1983, and finish second to Coe in the Olympic race in 1984, before breaking the 1500/Mile records the following year. Other emerging talents who would go on to win European and Commonwealth titles and Olympic medals were Peter Elliott, Jack Buckner, Tim Hutchings, Eamonn Martin, Steve Jones, Jon Solly, Charlie Spedding; and people barely remembered now outside the confines of the collective memory of the disintegrated club system, like Barry Smith, Steve Binns, Dave Black and, literally dozens of others who were world class runners.
And the majority of these were club runners, whose lesser colleagues were still good enough to be training foils.
Where are their inheritors? Playing with their computers or, at best, indulging their fantasies in fun-running?
When the London Marathon and other big-city races were introduced three decades ago, at exactly the same time as all those luminaries were gracing the tracks, the roads, and cross-country courses of the world, the claim was that their successors would emerge from the ranks of these fun-runners.
That hope has proved derisory. Because these people don't know how to train, they don't know how to hurt themselves in order to become proper runners. Instead they trot round marathon courses, and five and 10k races around the island, disguised as runners or, worse, dressed as clowns.
Which is what they are.
While the ageing Paula Radcliffe has carried the flag for commitment and the sort of intensity in training that few if any contemporaries even comprehend, apart from Farah and his Euro 10k silver medallist, Chris Thompson, the UK running community has been collapsing around their ears; which is not to decry or revile those few contemporaries, who are at least trying to keep pace.
But the world has moved on; and the axis of excellence has moved to East Africa.
Now Mo Farah has sprinted into its slipstream.
But where are the legions of yesteryear, those who used to train like madmen, often after a day at work, to ensure that contemporaries like Mo Farah did not have to take on the world by themselves?
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5 Responses to 21st CENTURY MO
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Excellent piece, Pat. No one could have put it better. Fun Running, whilst an admirable concept for the general health of the nation, has in fact destroyed world class (competitive) distance running in the UK. And if anyone doubts that, I refer them to your article.
Mo Farah’s recent form is very exciting. I feel that he has a better chance of winning an Olympic title in London at 10,000m rather than 5,000m. Now he has made himself a strong favourite to take the world 10,000m title in Daegu, Korea later this Summer.
One small point – Farah broke the European record by almost 6 seconds at Eugene last Friday, not 16 seconds.
“Pat, – in terms of past glories – I remember, in 1983, saying to my sports science students: “At 1500m, Britain has the current World and Olympic Champions and the World Record Holder (Ovett) – and these are three DIFFERENT athletes (Cram, Coe and Ovett) – you should enjoy this feeling now, as it won’t happen again in your lifetimes.” And Dave Moorcroft had run that incredible 13.00.42 (which Said Aouita was later credited with breaking breaking by .01sec – i.e. timed to greater accuracy than the measurement of the track!) – and, as memory serves, Dave had no pacemakers – nor did he have at all the luxury of freedom to train of the modern athlete. How fast might he have run today? All great credit to Mo – but he’s only 2sec faster than Dave at 5000. As your blog says, great athletes of the past! Built on a great tradition.
And, Pat, were you at the Moscow Games? Do you remember the possibility that GBR might have won EVERY track event from 100 to 5000m?!
Allan Wells, won 100m, and JUST lost the 200m, by 0.02. David Jenkins, who was the then American 400m Champion (!)- couldn’t compete due to giardiasis. Ovett won 800m and Coe the 1500m – and Dave Moorcroft also had to withdraw, being also stricken with giardiasis (a tap-water borne protozoal severe diarrhoea that was rife in the Olympic Village). Of course, one can’t say that Jenkins and Moorcroft would have won – but not long after, Dave Moorcroft ran faster than the winning time (and went on later to run his near 13mins), and, as I said, David Jenkins was the current American 400m champion!
Great days. And that talent will still be with us in genetic terms in young people today – but the nurturing systems are no longer in place to express it – and the tradition has virtually gone. Yet, Paula could do it! And Mara Yamauchi has been giving it a good go. And Mo is having a real bash! Good luck to Mo and Mara!! Yours in Sport. “
thanks, Dave
corrected
my English was always better than my maths…
Pat
Well-written, Pat. To be fair to the current guys, I’ve no doubt many train just as hard as our generation did. I would tend more to blame ‘coaches’, computers and the overall UK Athletics set-up. Most of us coached ourselves, learning from older athletes and from books and articles in AW and the like. We built on the Gerschler/Reindell/Igloi interval school, leavened with the Swedish fartlek tradition and consolidated with the ‘natural’ high-mileage programmes of Cerrutty and Lydiard.
But the latter are essentially individual progammes, don’t readily lend themselves to computerisation – which is what coaches like. Intensive interval work – following a computerised programme – will end up breaking you down, especially when you’re still physically immature.
Learning how to push yourself – and when to ease off – can’t be taught with the stopwatch or the computer. It was a skill you learned from training with your betters and then passed on to those coming up behind you. That was the essence of both club and university training groups. What we’ve lost is that link between the elite, the average and the up-and-coming. Now we have a small elite, who are required to do what their ‘coaches’ tell them or lose their ‘subventions’, who are completely detached from the mass of jogger/fun-runners, so that there is no longer any connection between the top of the pyramid and the base.
But it’s not enough simply to re-establish that connection. We then need to connect our national elite to the international elite. Those guys (‘n gals. . .) have to follow Mo’s example: pack their bags and make tracks for Portland, Eldoret, Addis Ababa, wherever. . . Or just be content to remain small fishes in an ever-shrinking pond.
Cheers,
Tim Johnston
Hi Pat,
Many congratulations to Mo Farah. Not only was his performance brilliant the execution was flawless. His tactics, sitting at the back of the lead pack and passing athletes only as they faded provided a text book example of how to run quality 10,000 meters. He stayed out of trouble, didn’t respond to any minor surges or change of pace and conserved energy until he made his move to win the race.Brilliant!!!
As for the larger picture in the UK, the jogging boom/ mass participant marathon enthusiasts seen to have have infiltrated the club system and ensured its demise. The UK coach education system must also bare great responsibility for our distance runners fall from grace. It has preached for almost two decades the superiority of anaerobic workouts and low volume mileage and we can see how disastrous are the end results.
Alberto Salazar was quoted after Mo’s race as saying he wants all of his athletes to run the maximum amount of mileage of which they are capable. In Mo’s case 120 miles per week. Then he makes additions by using none weight bearing aerobic activity such as workouts on an anti gravity or under water treadmill. Given this technology is only available to a select few but it illustrates the rational and thought process behind the success of his athletes.
In the US a return to high volume training has successfully turned the tide. The sport of distance running is health here as witnessed by performance in high school college and open competition. If it can happen in the US it can happen it the UK. Coach education and a drastic change in philosophy is the key!!
Jim Harvey.