Where Your Dreams Become Reality
|
Where Your Dreams Become Reality |
|
Men's 1,500: Lagat Gets A Deserved Gold America's 99 year wait for a championship gold in the men's 1,500 meters came to an today as naturalized American Bernard Lagat accelerated down the homestretch to capture his first world title in 3:34.77- a much deserved one. Lagat, the 2nd fastest all-time at 1,500 (3:26.34) had finished as the bridesmaid at both the 2001 world champs and 2004 Olympics. Webb Led Early It appeared that Webb had no intentions of being the sacrificial rabbit for the field for as they neared 600, the pace slowed and field strung together. At around 700 meters into the race, Kenya's 18-year old sensation Asbel Kiprop got antsy and moved from last to first as 800 was reached in 1:58.08. In a near ideal situation, Kiprop then served as the rabbit for Webb and ratched down the pace to a more honest level. Coming into the bell (2:41:51), all of the major contenders were in near perfect position. Kiprop led and was followed by Webb in 2nd. Korir was in 3rd and Lagat was perfectly positioned in 4th on the outside of Webb as 2005 world 1,500 and 800 champion Rashid Ramzi was in 5th. The pace started to quicken on the turn as Kiprop hit the 1,200 in 2:55.21. Webb was in perfect position running behind him. Entering the last 200, it was clear that any of the top 8 or 9 could still win as the honest but not suicidal pace had resulted in a near perfect race from a spectator's and athlete's standpoint - lots of guys still in contention. Kiprop in the Lead Heading into Homestretch Ramzi was directly behind them, looking for a way to get around them. Unable to squeeze between he was forced to try to jump outside to get around and lost a little momentum in the process. Meanwhile, Lagat, who had been perfectly positioned the whole race in the outside of lane 1 running in third, fourth, of fifth, also encountered a little traffic as he was forced moved to the outside into lane three for a few steps as he began to accelerate past the fading Webb. Lagat's sprint finish looked just as good as it did in the semifinals when he blew away the field to win his heat. Clearly, the best of the bunch Lagat powered home for his first world title although it would have been a very, very close finish had Ramzi not encountered traffic. Ramzi got around the Kenyans and moved up for the silver position (3:35.00). Ramzi was just ahead of Korir (3:35.04) who got the bronze. Kiprop ended up in 4th (3:35.24) in the tightly contested race as the top eight all finished within a second of each other. In the end, the two who looked the best in the semifinals and were expected to battle it out for gold finished 1-2. Lagat Thrilled He told USATF, "I've never been like this- I've always been a silver medalist." The eighth-placer (3:35.69) was the world leader, Webb, who in typical type-A Webb fashion was disgusted with his performance and called it a "colossal breakdown""
Gold in the future will not get easier for Webb as the World Champs were the international coming out party for 18 year old Kenyan sensation Asbel Kiprop, the world junior XC champion. Kiprop perhaps got a bit ahead of himself by glancing at Webb and wagging his finger in a #1 style when he won his first round heat. Nonetheless, Kiprop was pleased with his performance at the Worlds although he said he wasn't 100% ready for the senior ranks. He said, "I wasn't ready for the World Championships. I went to the African Games and I wound up winning, so I just came. So it's a good build-up for the Olympic Games. I'm just happy being number four for the first time. It's my first appearance at a global championships as a senior." Video: View the Final lap of the men's 1500m Final Results below Official Results - 1500 Metres - M - Final
|
Cross Country Spikes Injured?
|
34.1%
27.5%
18.0%
14.2%
6.3%