Didn't Nick Symmonds just have a breakthrough year in the 800? Why would he move up to 1500?

Backflips all day wrote:

I just don't get it.

Solomon, who's also obviously been working his butt off since the Olympics

Symmonds is 29, getting a bit old for this 800m lark. Probably been itching to move up for a while.

Running 600 next week, no?

Not sure how well the 1500 thing will go. He strikes me as a real specialist but then I never saw a sub 1:43 coming either.

Symmonds will never run faster than that 1:42.95, it was a miracle.

Also with the unbelievable young talent coming up (Amos, Kitum, Aman,) + Rudisha and Solomon, he'll never do better than 5th in the world.

I think Symmonds said he's still focusing on the 800 for this year's WC.

Symmonds wants to be like Coe now eh? Funny.

Duh. wrote:

Symmonds wants to be like Coe now eh? Funny.

yes

anyone who runs an 800 and then moves up to 1500 is coe

Solomon will be 29 this year.

They can both improve slightly over the next couple of years,(moreso Solomon)- there is still a couple more ideal races for that on the schedule. Nick should wait at least one more year before moving up to the 1500

Backflips all day wrote:

I just don't get it.

There are fewer drug-addled cartoon characters in the 1500 right now than in the 800. An Ovett-caliber runner can currently win championship 1500s. Not so, the 800, where you need to be a walking chemistry lab to stand a good chance of winning a medal.

Symmonds wants to be a real contender at 1500m in 2016 I would imagine. Better to start dabbling in the distance now, rather than wait any longer to get the experiences that will benefit him later. If he lines up in an Olympic final with his 800m pedigree and the savvy of a 1500m veteran, I don't think anyone would be smart to bet against him.

Manzano has a 1:44 PR in the 800m I believe... Symmonds probably feels good about his chances at 1500m as a proven 1:42 man, who surges very late in the race to pick off competitors.

lol lol lol lol wrote:

There are fewer drug-addled cartoon characters in the 1500 right now than in the 800. An Ovett-caliber runner can currently win championship 1500s. Not so, the 800, where you need to be a walking chemistry lab to stand a good chance of winning a medal.

As opposed to that walking chemistry lab Makhloufi in the 1500?

RRRR wrote:

Symmonds wants to be a real contender at 1500m in 2016 I would imagine. Better to start dabbling in the distance now, rather than wait any longer to get the experiences that will benefit him later..

Dabbling? Doesn't he have 3:36 PR currently?

Skate wrote:

Solomon will be 29 this year.

They can both improve slightly over the next couple of years,(moreso Solomon)- there is still a couple more ideal races for that on the schedule. Nick should wait at least one more year before moving up to the 1500

Wait another year?! Sure, if he is not serious about ever being world class again. If he was serious about being world class in the 1500 then he should have moved up at age 25. Trying to get that going at age 30 is a joke.

Thus endeth the relevance of the running career of Nick Symmonds.

He'll do a couple then move back down

There's no equivalent of Rudisha in the 1500 right now. Symmonds' big goal has always been medaling in an OG or WC, and he can imagine doing that in a championship 1500, where his kick would be up there with anyone's. His current training partner recently demonstrated what might be possible for him.

Edit: delete "championship"; redundant after "OG or WC."

Borza will move up too and these two will dominate the metric mile for foreseeable future.

If he wants to medal on the world stage, he has to stop putting himself in a 15-20 meter disadvantage heading into the last lap. Same for Manzano, though obviously he medaled, he would have been Olympic Champion with better positioning heading into the last lap.

Symmonds is probably just getting bored doing the same thing year after year. Moving up to the 1500 would be very dumb though. He's not a miler.

3:36 last year while obviously focussing on the 800 for London.

Interested to see what he does when he's slimmed down and fully committed to the 15.