Andrew Butchart believes his personal Geek Squad will be his secret weapon when he goes for gold at the European Indoor Championships this afternoon.
The 29-year-old from Dunblane eased into the 3000 metres final in Torun by winning his heat yesterday in 7:46:46.
The chief threat looms in the shape of Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen, the champion in Glasgow two years ago, who also progressed to remain on course for a title double following his 1500m victory on Friday.
But the analytics tech deployed by Butchart’s new coach Barry Fudge could make all the difference in the world, the Scottish record holder insists.
“It’s going to be difficult. But I’ll speak to Barry. He does an assessment of the weaknesses and strengths of athletes and he’ll judge on how best to come home with a medal. The shinier the better. We’ll do our best.
“Exploiting athletes’ weaknesses, as we saw with Jakob, is huge. In the final, hopefully we can push a little bit. And if you want to win, you’re going to have to work for it. You’re going to have to bleed to get gold.”
The prodigious Ingebrigtsen is still only 20 but is a man on a mission to rewrite history. And he showed few ill effects from his midnight wait on Friday for his 1500 triumph to be confirmed following his initial disqualification for stepping off the track.
“He knows what he’s doing,” Butchart added. “Although he’s very young, he’s very mature. But there is a lot of people who can get an upset. I think this will be a very good European final.” British team-mate Jack Rowe also progressed by coming third in his heat.
Reigning world indoor champion Andrew Pozzi underlined his status as favourite in the 60m hurdles by cruising through the heats in the quickest mark of 7.52 secs.
“I feel really good,” the Englishman said. “It was a little bit tentative to the first hurdle but I just wanted to be safe. It was encouraging but I can get much better.”
Tiffany Porter – along with sister Cindy Sember – breezed into the women’s 60m hurdles semis-finals and claimed her unique decision to run in a facemask is not slowing her down. “It’s just an added level of protection for me,” Porter declared. “I train every day in it so it’s part of my normal.”
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