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Olympic champions Mo Farah, Caster Semenya on brink of missing Tokyo Games

Farah and Semenya have both tried and failed to hit Olympic standard, and now they're almost out of time

Mo Farah

With less than a week left to qualify for the Tokyo Games, Olympic gold medallists Mo Farah and Caster Semenya are in unfamiliar territory, as neither has run standard. Farah, who owns the gold medals from the 5,000m and 10,000m at the past two Olympics, has run one 10,000m this year, a race in which he missed the Olympic standard of 27:28.00 by 22 seconds. Semenya can no longer compete in her preferred event of the 800m (despite being the reigning Olympic champion in the event) due to a World Athletics ruling on athletes with DSD (differences of sexual development), and her attempts at qualifying in the 5,000m have so far been unsuccessful. Farah and Semenya both race in the coming week, but if they can’t hit standard this time, they won’t be at the Tokyo Olympics. 

Farah’s last chance

Farah is undoubtedly one of the best athletes that the world of track and field has ever seen. He owns eight world championship medals in the 5,000m and 10,000m (six gold, two silver) and four Olympic gold medals in the same events. He was virtually unstoppable for most of the 2010s, but in the past few years, he has shifted his focus to the road and longer races like the marathon. 

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Since committing to the marathon, Farah has run the British national record of 2:05:11, but he hasn’t found the same success he became accustomed to on the track. Despite not having raced a 10,000m since his win at the 2017 world championships, he decided to hop back into the event in an attempt to make the Olympics for the fourth time. He left his qualifying attempt until early June, which didn’t give him much time to run another race if he missed standard. Unfortunately for him, that’s exactly what happened, and he finished well off Olympic standard at the British 10,000m Championships in Birmingham. 

RELATED: Mo Farah finishes 8th at British 10,000m Championships, misses Olympic standard

That race was Farah’s first loss over 10,000m in close to a decade, and it left him scrambling to find one last race to qualify for Tokyo. After the race, despite missing standard by so much, Farah said he was confident that he would qualify for Tokyo and defend his gold medal at the Games. 

Luckily for Farah, UK Athletics did him a big favour by organizing a special 10,000m invitational race that will be held on Friday, the first day of the British Athletics Championships. Plus, since it’s not an official part of the championships, organizers have invited a field of international athletes who can help pace Farah to Olympic standard.

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After finishing as the second Brit at his last race, Farah will be selected to the British team if he can hit standard this weekend. If he fails to run 27:28.00 once again, he will be out of chances, as the Olympic qualification window closes on June 29. 

RELATED: Donavan Brazier upset at U.S. Olympic Trials

Semenya tries again 

As a DSD athlete, Semenya’s natural testosterone levels are higher than those of most of her competitors. Because of this, World Athletics decided to bar DSD athletes from competing in any event between the 400m and mile unless they took medication to lower their testosterone to not more than 5 nmol/litre. This left Semenya with three options: take the medication, drop down to sprinting events, or jump up to at least the 5,000m. After testing her ability at the 200m last year, Semenya went all in on the 5,000m this year, but so far, she hasn’t been able to come close to the 15:10.00 Olympic standard.

She has improved significantly over the course of just a few races, but her PB of 15:32.14 (which she ran in late May) is still 22 seconds too slow. Semenya raced in Germany on Saturday, where she ran to a disappointing 15:57.12 finish, once again failing to hit standard.

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A report from Yahoo Sports says Semenya has plans to race one more time, but the event is set for June 30, a day after the Olympic qualification window closes. Her agent, Jukka Härkönen, told Yahoo Sports that he doesn’t think this will be an issue, and he believes that if Semenya hits standard on June 30, it will be considered as a legitimate qualifying time. 

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The race will be in Liege, Belgium, and Härkönen said it should be a fast 5,000m. He spoke with Yahoo before Semenya’s run in Germany, and he had said that he didn’t expect that race to be too competitive. The Belgium event, though, should be a different story, he said. “Liege will be her first serious race in 5,000m. After that, we will know more.”

If Härkönen is right and the race in Belgium gives Semenya the competition she needs to hit 15:10.00, then she could book her ticket to Tokyo. Of course, there’s a chance that Semenya hits standard and is still denied a spot on the South African Olympic team, seeing as she’ll have qualified a day late. Regardless of how it shakes out, the next week should be quite eventful, and Farah and Semenya won’t be alone in their last-chance efforts to make the Olympics. 

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