WC MEN'S 5000m FINAL THREAD! IT'S ON.

What I saw was Farah winning with superior tactics, NOT superior ability. Longasiwa ran faster than Farah on the last lap if you count the extra yards. Farah was all out, and he won by the margin of the extra yards he made everyone else run, and by the energy he saved running a more even pace early in the race. If he had gone with the surges or if he had run extra yards in the last lap, he would have been beaten today. Not invincible at all. No way is he GOAT. Not being able to dominate makes me respect him more.

poiuwerlk; wrote:

What I saw was Farah winning with superior tactics, NOT superior ability. Longasiwa ran faster than Farah on the last lap if you count the extra yards. Farah was all out, and he won by the margin of the extra yards he made everyone else run, and by the energy he saved running a more even pace early in the race. If he had gone with the surges or if he had run extra yards in the last lap, he would have been beaten today. Not invincible at all. No way is he GOAT. Not being able to dominate makes me respect him more.

Who cares who is the GOAT? There's no medal for it.

People care about best in an era, or who wins the race.

Those Chinese women runners are the GOAT. And no one cares.

"People care about...who wins the race"

Yes. Kinda the whole point of these championships races.

"What I saw was Farah winning with superior tactics, NOT superior ability"

Huh. Kinda the same thing, really, when you are trying to win a race. Mo is an absolutely uncanny racer. It is a treat to watch him be both smarter and tougher than anyone else in the race.

And let's cut to the chase:

Mo Farah has won every important final in the two most important competitions in the last 2 years: the Olympics and the World Champs. Period.

Has every single runner in every single race all of sudden become the stupidest bunch of racers ever and handed Mo the medals with a whimper and a shrug?

He has defeated all comers in the most important races.

Parse it any way you want: dumb Kenyans, dumb Rupp, dumb coaches, dumb Ethiopians, dumb rest of the world, etc; the

dumb basic fact remains he beat every single last one of them.

Give the man his due instead of second guessing the entire collective distance running talent of the planet.

Yes, more credit has to be given to Farah.

He didn't panick and fall for the bait on the second lap surge.

He controls at the front better than no one else I have ever seen.

He will speed it up and then slow it down and then leave soemthing for the end all while holding off the pack once he is at the front.

Someone tries to pass, he speeds up.

They settle in behind him, he eases up and reserves energy.

And he's just too good to run away from early on.

I have to agree that the tactic of waiting for him to get old or move on to something else is the only way to win a 10,000 or 5000 championship race now.

The best analysis I have seen. Thanks.

I think Centrowitz has many of these skills. But his semi may have been too fast compared to the other turtle trots.