Guys, how can you say that this pacer was awful??
The commentators said she was asked to deliver a 57.5 opening lap and she did that almost to the tenth as far as I could see on the broadcast.
However, the leaders came through at 60.x!
If you are pacing someone and they don't come with the PREDETERMINED PACE, you can let it sag SLIGHTLY so they get in your slipstream again, IF they are reasonably close.
If the field decides to completely dawdle and ignore the pace the meet paid to have set, the pacemaker still needs to run the time they were told.
The job is called pacemaking, not wind-breaking (although if the field was up for the pace they would have windbreaking, too).
The goal is not just running in first at whatever pace the field decides on, because this would defeat the whole purpose.
Just my two cents.