ANDREW Butchart wasn't even born when Brian Whittle famously only needed one shoe to help Great Britain to European Championship gold in the 4x400m relay. So perhaps he can be forgiven for requiring the services of Google to fill in a few blanks after he took a page from his book in Hengelo this weekend. The Scottish athletics legend reached out to Butchart on Twitter after the 24-year-old from Dunblane recorded his second Olympic A qualifying standard, not to mention breaking a 36-year-old Scottish record, in the 5,000m on Sunday, kicking off a troublesome spike which had become loosened during the last lap.
"I am so bad on athletes in the past – I didn't follow athletics when I was a kid or whatever," said Butchart. "I heard about it and thought he must have been a 5k guy or something but then I researched it and found out he was a 400m runner. How did he lose a shoe in a 400m race? I haven't watched the video of it yet but it was nice that he spoke to me and said well done to me on Twitter."
Having Mo Farah in your event – who has already been awarded the discretionary spot for Rio – leaves Butchart battling the likes of Andy Vernon and Tom Farrell for a top-two finish in the British trials next month to rubber-stamp his spot at the Olympics. Speaking at the launch of the Stirling Marathon, a new athletics event in his own neighbourhood which will debut in May 2017, Butchart said he feels confident of taking the spot, and plans to persist with the troublesome shoe, wardrobe malfunction or not.
"To get the time twice in such a short space of time is great," said Butchart. "But I'm still not there yet at all. There's lots of athletes in the UK who are in a similar position to me so it is all a matter of getting top-two at the trials. But the fact I got the Scottish record meant a lot to me. I didn't know how fast I could run but knowing I could run that fast – and I still think I can run faster – makes me think I am a lot better than I thought I was at the start of the year. I will wear the same spikes for sure, I will just make sure they are tied up properly!"
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