Leo Wow!!!! 3:51 FTW

ikindalikebutts wrote:

hmmm. not a real impressive last 400m or last 200m. splits of 31 and 27? meh. I think its not too much to expect a sub 3:50 with 2:53 at the bell.

LRC wrote:

Men's 1500m: Leo Manano Comes From Way Back To Get A Fantastic Win!!!

Good news American distance running fans, Leo Manzano's love affair with Great Britain is going very strong and the 2012 will be held in the UK next year.

Over the last two years, Manzano has been known for some maddening inconsistency and for producing a few total stinkers of a race each year, highlighted or should we say lowlighted by a 13th place showing at Pre in 2009, 11th place and 13th place showings at Pre and Monaco last year and a 12th place showing in Stockholm just last week.

But every time during that time frame that he's stepped foot in the UK, he's run very well.

2009: He was 2nd in London in the mile in 3:53.01 and then won in Gateshead in the 1,500.

2010: He was third in Gateshead in the 1,500 before getting third in the mile in London in 3:50.64.

Well Manzano did even better today as he after seemingly being out of it 1000 into the race, he worked his way up to the lead pack and then did the unthinkable - went three wide and out-kicked both Augustine Choge and Bernard Lagat to get the win in 3:51.24.

The race was rabbitted nearly flawlessly by American Jack Bolas through a half mile in 1:53.44 and Craig Miller who took them to 500 meters remaining. With 500 to go, Manzano was seemingly out of the race. There was a lead group of four of Choge, Lagat, Kenya's Bethwell Birgen and America's Lopez Lomong and then a visible gap to the other runners. Manzano was in 7th at this point, some 1.7 seconds down. Coming off the turn, he had left the chase pack - and chase pack is a term you don't normally use in a race as short as mile - and started to make inroads on the leaders. At the bell, Manzano was still more than a full second behind but he was moving forward. With 300 remaining, he finally caught the tail-end of the group and at this point he caught the announcer's attention who said exactly what we were thinking, "Manzano's covered that gap but there will have been a lot of work put in to do just that." That being said, Manzano's march forward didn't slow at all on the backstretch as first he passed Lomong and then Birgen. Now Manzano was in third and the announcer was really impressed, "And what a surge this is by Manzano up into third place."

But just as Manzano was catching up to Lagat, only 200 meters remained and the leading duo started to accelerate for the kick for home. Surely Manzano was dead in the water. But no, coming off the final turn, Choge still lead but Lagat was right behind him and Manzano right behind him. The runner's went three wide. As Lagat moved up on Choge, Manzano moved up on Lagat. Manzano surged past both of them and got the win as Lagat would edge past Choge after Manzano had left them both. A fantastic finish and a startling victor. Or as the British announcer so perfectly exclaimed, ""A fabulous win for the little American and he's taken a couple of big scalps there."

Lagat ended up second in 3:51.38 as Choge was third in 3:51.50. Everyone else was way, way back.

QT#1: This race really was a fantastic race to watch and we encourage you to watch it below. The beauty of track and comes in watching people compete not chase times and finishes of races don't get much better than this.

QT#2: As amazing as Leo's win was, it probably is a tiny bit misleading as the stats reveal that Lagat, who doesn't have the same finishing kick at age 36 as he once did, and Choge, who has been struggling for much of the year, didn't close all that well. Lagat closed his last lap in the 56 mid-range with a last 200 of something like 27.2. Leo's last lap was in 55.2-3 and his last 200 in 26.8-9. But in an elite 1,500 someone should really never be able to make up more than a second on the last lap like Manzano did. If this was the Lagat of say five years ago, no way would he have lost over the final 200.

QT#3: After running 4:01.60, we wonder if 21-year old Aussie wonder-kid Ryan Gregson will even want to go to world's. We think he should go no matter what just to get the experience under his belt so he doesn't go into the Olympics as a rookie.

QT#4: We want to apologize to the LRC faithful. In our pre-race preview, we basically missed the fact that Bernard Lagat was in the race and added a brief line in about him at the end. But the whole theme of our preview would have been the same of "Who is going to win this race?" Undoubtedly, Lagat was the favorite but having seen him bet outkicked by Matt Centrowitz at USAs and Mo Farah in Europe, we would have wondered if still has the finishing speed to win.