The men’s 1,500 meter final from Rio has been played a ton over the last few months and it’s mainly because of Matt Centrowitz’s historic win for the United States. While watching the race in Rio, I remember thinking to myself how much more interesting that race could’ve been with Robby Andrews in there to push his kick in the final lap.

Andrews was disqualified in the semifinal as he stepped in the inside rail in the final lap. He got back on the track pretty fast and took fifth in 3:40.25, which gave him an automatic qualifier for the final but he was removed from the results under an IAAF rule that states he gained a “material advantage.”

I caught up with Robby last week for the first episode of our new podcast.

Andrews discussing the D.Q. begins at 13:44

“It took a while. It was not easy. I was really frustrated with a lot of things and I was just really happy with how hard USATF was able to fight for me and protest so many times. I believe that everyone did everything they could to get me into the final. Nothing you can do about it now. That’s what happened. Do I wish I could’ve run that race 100 different times? Absolutely. But you live with the decisions you make and become better from it. That’s how I’m looking at it. I didn’t get the chance to run in the final but there’s a world championships this summer. There’s a lot of other opportunities to try and run fast and compete for the U.S. It’s a huge bummer I didn’t get to compete in the Olympic final but that’s how it goes sometimes. I’m just going to keep moving forward. Keep training and trying to do me.”

 

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Robby gives his account of that final lap and more in the latest Citius Mag podcast episode. Subscribe on iTunes now.