The Robertson Twins in Moscow

The Robertson twins Jake and Zane contested the heats of the 5000m. Zane was well placed in second or third position on the pole line for most of his heat, moving back when the pace went on with two laps remaining. He finished in ninth place in 13m 27.89s and hoped the second heat would be a slower race enabling him to slip into the final as one of the fastest outside the top five in each heat. With just one faster in 13m 25.21s in the second heat, Robertson grabbed the last qualifying spot.

“I guess I felt good the whole way. I just got a little bit of trouble with 700 metres to run with the Ugandan (Phillip Kipyeko) and he really went kind of wild at me, swung a fist at me, I lost my rhythm a bit so coming to the bell I wasn’t a hundred per cent confident in my sprint anymore and it shows, I mean I lost it, I ended up number nine,” said Zane.

His was supportive of his brother Jake who was running in the second heat. “He slipped out of a bath tub the day before the 10,000m and he couldn’t walk and he copped a lot of flak for pulling out of the race. He deserves to be here,” said Zane.

Jake put up a valiant attempt in the second heat, but the injury he sustained in the fall proved too much and he slipped back over the second half to finish in 14^th place in 14m 9.50s. He hobbled off the track and through to the mixed zone.

“The day before the 10,000m I slipped really bad and fell out of the bath and straight away I thought I’d broken something and I got up to move and I felt the calf. I had really damaged my leg to the point I couldn’t walk normally – but the physio got me jogging by evening but my body mechanics were not normal and affected the way I moved,” said Jake.“An athletes mind is to block out all the negatives and just go and that’s what I did,” added Jake. “Today (5000m) didn’t go the way I wanted. Congrats to my brother on qualifying for the final – it’s amazing.”

“These types of incidents really motivate you for the next year and the events to come. I really feel that this is a disappointment on my life and I can’t do anything about it now so I’ve just got to move on and try and savour what’s the rest of my season. Right now I can’t even walk properly, the left calf and back of the knee and because of that the other hamstring, the other calf has gone it’s just the body mechanics is forcing me to run in a different way.”