He may have lost his shoe but Butchart is stepping towards Rio
ANYONE have a pair of track spikes you can fasten with Velcro, three security bands and a padlock? Just asking for a friend. If you don’t know him by now, you may do by the end of this Olympic summer.
With two qualifying times for the 5,000metres safely tucked away, Andrew Butchart can afford to laugh now about how he finished with just one shoe during his crucial second run.
Amazingly, he still produced a spectacular effort that saw him smash a 36-year-old Scottish record.
At the time, of course, it didn’t seem so funny to the Dunblane athlete, who is now within touching distance of a place in Rio.
Revealing the full story of how he was left lopsidedly galloping down the home straight to beat Nat Muir’s record by almost four seconds in Holland last weekend, Butchart admitted to being horror-stricken when he felt the footwear loosening to the point of uselessness in the very first of 12-and-a-half laps.
Confessing that he even considered stopping to tie the offending shoe before simply hoping to catch up with the pack, the 24-year-old said: ‘I knew the race was going to be run fast and, in my head, I thought this was my last opportunity to run the Olympic qualifying time.
‘So it was either get it done or I might have to try to find another race. I would have been in such a bad place.
‘It was quite wet and sometimes laces can untie themselves. I only double knotted my right shoe and we were out there quite a while before the start of the race.
‘It must have come undone a little bit and I didn’t bend down to retie it. When the gun went off and I started running away, I could feel my lace hitting my leg.
‘By the next lap, it was definitely undone. My foot had come out a little bit and it started getting wider and wider. I kept thinking: “Oh no, this is not happening. I can’t let this ruin the race”. Every lap, I was thinking: “Don’t fall off, don’t fall off”.
‘I even thought I could maybe stop and tie it really fast. I seriously thought about that for maybe 200 yards, saying to myself: “If I could put in a bit of an effort, then tie my lace really quick, then jump back up and get back on … it would take me three or four seconds to tie my shoelace and I could surely get that back…”
‘Then I thought: “What the hell am I thinking about?” That was all going on in my head and it put me off the race. Although it might have helped me because I didn’t think about how ruined I was, I was just thinking about that.
‘I felt fine going into the last two laps but, because you pick up a bit more pace and you want to be competitive in the race, my stride pattern changed a little bit — and the inevitable happened.
‘It just came out with about 400 to go. I started landing on the heel of the shoe and then down the back straight I thought: “I can’t run”. So I just kicked it away.
‘My feet were a little bit torn on the inside but that is normal for me after every race. I’m just lucky my foot didn’t come out of the shoe earlier. In a way, I am lucky that’s the way it happened. I will definitely wear those spikes again, for sure. But, obviously, I’ll make sure they’re tied properly.’
Despite having met the Olympic qualifying standard twice, Butchart is not yet guaranteed a spot at the summer Games. Team GB selectors will still want to see him finish in the top two at next month’s British Championships — again doubling up as the trials.
Mo Farah is obviously guaranteed one place, with two others from a pretty impressive chasing pack also likely to travel.
‘I’m still not there yet at all,’ said Butchart. ‘Lots of athletes in the UK are in a similar position to me, so it’s all a matter of getting top two at the trials.
‘There’s me, Andy Vernon and Tom Farrell, all going for two spots. Because Mo has the third spot, the discretionary spot, they can only take two more.
‘Right now, I guess I’m in a good position. Those guys haven’t run the time this year yet — so if we ran it right now, I would be confident.
‘A lot of guys who haven’t got the timings yet could still finish top two. So I have to get the job done.
‘I’ve never been in this situation before, so I don’t really know how I will cope but I feel fine, relaxed. I’m not worried. I can still sleep at night. I feel confident right now in how fit I am. Hopefully, I feel this good on the day.
‘Getting the qualifying time twice was huge. The fact that I got the Scottish record as well meant a lot to me.’