British runner confronts French rival after 5000m controversy

By Jeremy Wilson of The Daily Telegraph

Great Britain runner George Mills was involved in a furious football-style confrontation with a French athletics rival after a spectacular four-man fall during the heats of the men’s 5,000 metres.

With the race starting slowly and bunching up ahead of a final-lap dash for the top-eight places to reach the final, the 20-man field became particularly dangerous.

The Canadian Mohammed Ahmed had already fallen before chaos in the final straight as Mills tried to find space through the middle of the French runner Hugo Hay and Spaniard Thierry Ndikumwenayo.

Mills, however, only clipped into Hay and, having lost his footing, the domino effect also took out Ndikumwenayo, the Netherlands’ Mike Foppen and Dominic Lokinyomo Lobalu from the Refugee team.

Mills, son of former England footballer Danny Mills, was trying to find a gap that looked minimal but he clearly felt that Hay had unfairly barged him and, with his running speed-suit zipped down to show his chest, promptly marched in the direction of Hay and began angrily pointing before an X-rated outburst.

Replays confirmed that the pair had also been jostling just before they entered the straight.

The Frenchman, who qualified for the final by finishing seventh, seemed to be trying to calm Mills down, with the Briton responding by pushing towards his chest and continuing to gesture angrily.

“I think it’s pretty clear – I got stepped out on as I was about to kick,” said Mills. “The French lad took me down. I got taken out.”

Asked what he had said to Hay, Mills said: “I’m probably not allowed to say.” Mills confirmed that he wanted Team GB to appeal, with officials having the ability to reinstate athletes if they are deemed not at fault.

It was subsequently confirmed that the footage was studied by the officials and they ruled in favour of Mills and allowed all of the four fallers – Mills, Ndikumwenayo, Foppen and Lokinyomo Lobalu – into Saturday night’s final.

Radcliffe blames runners for being too slow

The BBC commentators Paula Radcliffe and Steve Cram thought that Mills, and those who had fallen, had paid for allowing the pace to drop so much during the race.

“If you choose to jog around that slowly, and people fall, it’s kind of your own fault,” said Radcliffe. “When there are that many people around I’m not sure you are going to be able to say, ‘I had somebody trip me up’. There were too many men there because nobody took it on.”

Seeing the pictures of Mills confronting Hay, Cram added: “No…. Paula is right to some extent, with the exception of [Narve Gilje] Nordas [heat winner], most of them have got themselves to blame.

“George was in a bad position from a long way out. He should have checked out much earlier. George, from what I could see, did do a big push there in the home straight.”

The after-race confrontation involving Mills and Hay drew immediate comparisons with the British runner’s father and an infamous clash with Robbie Savage during their days playing for Middlesbrough and Birmingham City respectively.

There was then almost another major collision in the second heat when a cameraman, who was focused on the javelin, wandered obliviously onto the track and within centimetres of a pack of runners.

This article was first published on nzherald.co.nz and is republished here with permission