Mo Farah - racing @ 17:45

[Barrel of Fun]

And I thought he was African.

Coe? Nope. He's British.

 

[Marxo]

Bingham and Levine were poor, their splits were terrible, the first 2 kept up with the Borlee twins and the other 2 only just beat the 2 Belgian novices. It's a pity that one or two of the 400m hurdlers couldn't be drafted in.

 

[London Irish]

Well, I'm not sure that even with 1 extra gold at, say Rio, he'd clinch it for me. You mention Coe - don't forget he won 1500m gold in two Olympics and held multiple WR too. You say that Coe's WR was before the Africans came on strong. You're right, but Coe's WR was astonishing - since he set it, it's been lowered by less than 1% - the 100m WR has been lowered by over 3% over the same time period.

What would definitely do it for me for Mo?

5 and 10k Olympic Gold at Rio, OR
Major Marathon win OR
WR in either 5k or 10K.

Do rowers count as "athletes"? If so, Redgrave has to take the title of all-time best UK athlete - 5 Olympic golds in consecutive games (i.e. reigning Olympic champion for over 20 years) is simply staggering.

Mo, for me, is streets ahead of any other current UK athlete (however defined) and makes the top 5 of all time.

Brilliant athlete - truly world class championship runner.

Ha, sorry find rowing deathly boring!

My one problem with Coe is just how many major races he lost as favourite. At his peak his world record feats were astonishing but he never seemed for me to carry that dominating brilliance into actual championship races to the extent you expected - beaten at 78 euros, beaten by Ovett at 80 Olympics, by some unknown German at 82 euros, sicknote in 83, by Cruz in 84 Olympics and then by Cram at 86 euros. If Mo remains unbeatable til the next Olympics, he takes Coe for me

 

[MICK PATCHAM]

Amazing Somalian runner

 

[London Irish]

Little known fact, Coe is quarter Indian, his grandfather was a Punjabi called Sardari Lal

 

[knocky1]

Was Mo Farah favourite to win and what were his odds roughly by the bookies? Considering how good Mo is, probably odds-on?

Great achievement by an amazing athlete.

1/3. Not bad.

 

[Questions]

Little known fact, Coe is quarter Indian, his grandfather was a Punjabi called Sardari Lal

His grandfather ? Shit. So nearly could have done the Indian naan joke.

 

[Frutos]

Amazing Somalian runner

Given that his father was born in this country, he's at least half-British whichever way you look at it. In any case, he represents our country and takes great pride in so doing, as he said in his post-race interview.

 

[BuddyBoy]

Amazing Somalian runner

British citizen. That is all that matters.

 

[Spicy]

Absolutely this. Is there a better a reason for a knighthood? I think not.

As I said I love Mo, so am not criticising him. Yes he is all of the reasons you state but others have worked for years and not got the same sort of recognition, and have given significant amounts of time and money to charity. Anyhow just an opinion.

 

[BuddyBoy]

As I said I love Mo, so am not criticising him. Yes he is all of the reasons you state but others have worked for years and not got the same sort of recognition, and have given significant amounts of time and money to charity. Anyhow just an opinion.

A fair opinion too. I suppose the argument would be that athletes have a relatively short career, and Mo's achieved a massive amount so far, plus his very commendable charity work. Knighthood suitability is always tricky terrain.

 

[mejonaNO12 aka riskit]

What. A. Bloke