ANDY BUTCHART has leaned on Mo Farah’s mentor to help him challenge for three titles this summer, starting with the 5000 metres at the world championships.
The double Olympic finalist has revealed his new coach is Gary Lough, husband of Paula Radcliffe, who also guided Basher Abdi of Belgium to follow up his Olympic bronze with third place in the marathon in Oregon last Sunday.
And Butchart has credited the Northern Irishman for helping his speedy recovery from a broken leg to make the start line of tonight’s heats..
“It's a new thing for me and new thing for him,” said Butchart. “We've got a good future ahead of us. We've always been good friends. For a long time, we’ve talked a lot. I think he was a bit reluctant to take me on with a broken leg. I went 'Please, please.' It's been really recent in the past ten weeks or so. But it's been good.”
Despite missing the medals at the British trials, Butchart was picked for the worlds on his reputation and ranking. He concedes his short of race fitness but his outing here will, at least, equip him better for the forthcoming Commonwealths and Europeans.
“My training log, six weeks ago, I'm doing reps slower than under-15 boys and girls. And so yeah, I've come on pretty fast. I have to take off my hat off to my coach. He's done really well.”
