George Mills admitted he was “probably not allowed” to repeat what he said to France’s Hugo Hay after he was involved in a four-man fall in his 5000 metres heat.
After the men had crossed the finish line, Mills and Hay were seen arguing and making physical contact, Mills pointing furiously at the Frenchman.
Mills claimed Hay was responsible for the incident and officials agreed the Briton had been disadvantaged, advancing him to Saturday’s final following a review by the video referee.
Mills, the son of former Leeds and England full-back Danny told the BBC: “I think it’s pretty clear. I got stepped out on as I was about to kick in the home straight and boom, the French lad took me down.”
Asked what he said when he confronted Hay: “I’m probably not allowed to say.”
“From my perspective that was the perfect qualifier for me, going through first 2k in six minutes. I was like, ‘Nobody in this field can run away from me at this pace’, so I was just sitting, waiting, biding my time, gonna kick off the home straight then bang, hit the deck. What can you do?”
Later, Mills added: “It looks like my path was maybe stopped. Mo Ahmed went down with 800m to go and I just about managed to hurdle him, so I thought I’d got away with one there.
“But then going into the home straight on the last lap, I was tucked in on the inside, where I wanted to be, because I knew some sort of gap would open up. It did and I was ready to put my foot down and all of a sudden, boom, I hit the deck.
“I was ready to go. If we look at the top pace of the race, it was playing into a 1500 metre guy’s hands, so that was my plan. Get around the whole race, sit in and don’t waste any energy, get into the last 100m, doesn’t matter if you are 10th or 12th, you will be able to come past.
“We executed that to the point, and I was ready to execute that last little bit, but that got taken out of my control unfortunately.”
Hay told Discovery+: “There was a big collision. It’s not me. Somebody pushed me.
“Something happened, I turned around and everyone was on the floor so I hope it’s not me. I feel really good.”
Mills had been running alongside the Frenchman in a crowd just before the tumble, their arms appearing to at some point connect, causing Mills to slightly lose his balance.
He recovered, but moments later was tipped to his side, taking Spain’s Thierry Ndikumwenayo and Refugee Olympic Team athlete Dominic Lobalu out with him.
The Netherlands’ Mike Foppen attempted to swerve but he too toppled and joined the pile of fallen bodies.
Ndikumwenayo, Lobalu and Foppen were also awarded places in the final following the review by the video referee, who qualified them due to the level they were disadvantaged.
Former Olympic silver medallist Steve Cram, commentating on the race for the BBC, said: “George was in a bad position from a long way out, he should have checked out much earlier.
“There’s lots of experienced men in there and yes, everyone thinks they can kick, but when you get to that situation [very slow pace] the chances of people going down are increased incredibly.”
Patrick Dever and Sam Atkin, the other GB athletes in 5000m contention, did not make it through after finishing 13th and 18th respectively.
It had been a difficult Olympic build-up for Atkin over the last five weeks. The Grimsby athlete shared that he sat a fortnight out with “extreme food poisoning… I could hardly walk up the stairs”, then contracted Covid-19 for the first time three weeks ago.
Ben Pattison, Max Burgin and Elliot Giles all advanced from their 800 metres heats to Friday’s semi-finals.
Giles was called in as a late replacement for 2022 world 1500 metres champion Jake Wightman, who was last week forced to withdraw from the Olympics with a hamstring injury.
Earlier, three-time Olympian Cindy Sember qualified for Friday’s women’s 100 metres hurdles semi-final after finishing second from her heat in 12.42 seconds.
Jasmine Camacho-Quinn, the Puerto Rican Tokyo 2020 champion, was quickest of both Sember’s heat and the overall 39-woman field.
Revee Walcott-Nolan secured her spot in the women’s 1500 metres semi-final from the repechage round.
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