[Grammar] is quickly running away and did not quickly run away

[newlearn]

Every Friday night, my colleagues and I have a meetup session in which native English speakers help non-native speakers learn English. I brought up two pairs of my similar sentences which I am going to write down next.

(1a) John quickly ran away from a lion when he saw in a forest.

(1b) John ran away from a lion quickly when he saw in a forest.

(2a) Mary is quickly running away from the thief, who tries to rob her.

(2b) Mary is running away from the thief quickly, who tries to rob her.

My colleagues think that the adverb is correctly placed in (1a) (1b) and (2a). In their opinions, the adverb is misplaced in (2b) because it splits the object, thief, and the pronoun, who.

However, some of them have made the following comments:

All of my sentences are ambiguous with "quickly" and "running away" are used together. "To run away" requires a quick decision and the ensuing action. If you see a danger, you flee right away. "Quickly" suggests that you take a short time to make a decision about running away. If you want to run away, don't pause for making a decision. The bottom line is that "quickly" and "running away" cannot go together.

I am very confused. Could someone please help me out? Thanks a lot.

 

[Tarheel]

Please note the corrections.

(1a) John quickly ran away from a lion when he saw IT in a forest.

(1b) John ran away from a lion quickly when he saw IT in a forest.

(2a) Mary is quickly running away from the thief, who IS TRYING to rob her.:-|

 

[Tarheel]

None of the sentences is ambiguous (except for (2b) which is unusable and unfixable).

There are a couple more ways to rephrase sentence (1a).Can you find them?

You're welcome. But don't do that again. (Use the "Thank" button.)

 

[Tarheel]

Rob: I ran away quickly.
Bob: What did you run away from?
Rob: A thief! He was trying to rob me.
Bob: How do you know it was a thief?
Rob: I don't know. I'm still working on that.
Bob: You're still working on that?
Rob: Yes. I can't talk anymore right now.
Bob: Why?
Rob: It's almost time for the football game.
Bob: OK.