Success in the Stade de France – Olympic Games Report

A busy morning in the Stade de France saw a largely successful couple of hours for the British athletes competing. James Rhodes runs through the action.

Excellent Eights

Three British men in the 800m, three straight qualifiers for Friday’s semi-finals. An excellent outcome that sees the repechage avoided.

First up came Elliot Giles. This time last week, Elliot was in the Swiss mountains with his family. His Olympic journey seemingly over, a fall at the British Championships all but ending the dream.

Fast forward to just after 11:00 this morning and there he was on the Stade de France start line, after injury forced Jake Wightman to withdraw. It has been a mentally tough few weeks, as Elliot has openly said in his (excellent) YouTube videos. Yet, you’d never guess from his race. Tactically astute, finishing strongly in 1:45.93 for second behind World Leader Djamel Sedjati. Qualification secured. Afterwards, Elliot summed it up well with three words; “it’s just wild”.

Ten minutes later, the turn of World Championship bronze medallist Ben Pattison. Two from two, as a late surge in the final 100m secured a race win. The strong close is nothing new to Ben’s armour, although it came a little later than expected this morning – even for Ben.

“Watching it back, the last 100, I feel like I left it a lot later than I planned. But I felt very comfortable, I had another gear in me if I needed it. I trusted my kick and luckily I managed to win.

It’s the Olympics, I just go with the mindset that I’ve worked all my life to get here and I don’t want to underperform because I’m nervous or not ready for the occasion. I feel like I’m in the best shape of my life and I just want to go out there and show it”.

Marvellous Max

Next up, the prodigy. Max Burgin has shown so much potential, yet the cruel nature of injury has denied many of his moments to shine. In a particularly strong heat, largely due to his SB of 1:45.35 being on the slower side. He faced Mohamed Attaoui of Spain and American Bryce Hoppel, both with 1:42 to their name this season.

No pressure, however. Another tactical masterclass, possibly one of his best, to finish third and avoid tomorrow’s repechage round.

“The start list was a quite intimidating, seeing 1:45 next to my name and a bunch of 1:44s and a 1:42 next to the others, but I knew I was fitter than my form so far this season is showing. I’ve had a good month’s training since the British Championships, I was pretty confident I’d be able to perform at the level required.

I didn’t run the most perfect of races. I was knocked around a bit, so I had to hang around and stick in the pack a bit. I still had enough left at the end to get the top three spot and an automatic qualifier position. I’m very grateful for that because I get a day off tomorrow now!”.

Revee Returns

One athlete who did have to face the repechage was Revee Walcott-Nolan. She finished eighth in her heat yesterday morning. Noteworthy is that time would not have seen her progress had non-automatic qualifiers been in place instead of the extra round.

Today, the job description was easy; top-three or bust. Revee made it look easy, helping to lead the pace and never outside of a qualifying position. She is one athlete who is now a fan of the repechage, as she said to Fast Running’s James Rhodes after the race:

“I am a fan of the repechage now! I woke up this morning and I thought ‘I can’t believe I’m doing this’, but I thought ‘you’ve just got to control what you can control’. That was all I could do today, but I was really happy with that.

I was expecting another girl to take it out, when I got out in the first 100m and found myself in the lead straight away I thought ‘oh god!’.  didn’t really want to take it out, but I also think I am strong enough. It kind of suited me to be at the front”.

Revee will face Gudaf Tsegay, Diribe Welteji and Jess Hull, amongst others, in tomorrow’s second semi-final (18:47 UK time).

Athlete Skittles

To say the men’s 5000m heats were dramatic would be an understatement.

The opening heat featured Patrick Dever and George Mills. Both in their Olympic debuts, with George having already contested the 1500m. The pace was slow, to say the least. A 3:05 opening kilometre, 2:58 second and 2:59 third. It was a jog, rather than a run. It was cagey, and at points it looked like the bunched field of 20 (!) athletes could fall at any moment.

They did. First, Canadian Moh Ahmed on the penultimate lap. Then, with less than 100m to go, Thierry Ndikumwenayo went down, joined by George Mills, Mike Foppen and Dominic Lobalu. Athlete skittles. There were words said on the finish line by George to Frenchman Hugo Hay, the potential instigator of the fall. All four involved in the second fall were advanced to the final.

 

Patrick Dever, who had led for much of the early laps, struggled in the closing stages and finished thirteenth (14:13.46).

“I did everything I could, I was struggling for speed at the end. It was tough, you don’t want to lose at the Olympics, but I’m proud that I put everything into it.

I put myself up front at the start, so that when the move did happen, I’d be in a good position to respond quickly. I knew it was going to happen quickly, I just wasn’t ready to react in time. I probably don’t have enough experience in that but that’s no excuse. You’ve just got to be ready and be in the right spot. I’m disappointed in the result but I can be proud of the effort I put in”.

Sam Atkin finished eighteenth in the second heat.