Why are men more strategic than women in Track?

Your generalization may have some element of truth but it is not entirely accurate.

I've coached at all levels and have noticed that all youth runners begin by running all-out, all the time, both boys and girls. As they get older, and run into deeper competition they develop a better sense of race tactics. For boys this comes earlier since there is much more parity. For the fastest girls, they can continue to dominate their competition much later in their careers without consequence.

If there is some truth to your pattern it might be that, with less parity in women's running, the top competitors still have a sense that they can dominate the prelims and be fresh for the final. Since they always have.

Yeah that is what I figured too.

However what is the point?? Even if you are the best why win the 400m by over a second? I see this all the time even at the top top levels. You rarely see men do this but female runners all the time

It boils down to the following: men are lazy slackers and women strive for perfection in most everything

It could be related to gender-based differences in attitudes toward risk.

Here's why: women are slow and there is little depth. Why slog a race and keep everyone in contention. Usually there's only 1-2 good runners who can win a women's race. So they take it out securing their top place.

For men the depth is so great there's too much to risk by taking it out. Everyone can hold pace and all you'll be doing is acting as a rabbit.

I'd just get banned if I answered this.

I don't know why they race this way, but they start racing like that at a young age. Ever watch a girls' high school XC race? The last 4,800 meters of the race are a formality. Thirty seconds into the race, the eventual winner is already well ahead and the pack has already started to string out.

Women are smarter and buy less into the myth that if you run an honest effort in the prelim you will blow up in finals. Unfortunately women are evolving to be more like the men in recent years which is why Efraimson was 10 seconds off her PR at USAs and didn't go to finals. The next generation is killing us. It was never perfect but the 80s were a lot more exciting for track meets on both sides.

The women's 800 is awesomely strategic and features a good mix of front runners and late ralliers, all of whom use their strength instead of chickening out to a default "tactical" race inevitably won by the best kicker. The women's 1500 is won from the front more often too.

That Italian woman won the WC marathon in 2013 primarily because she knew to dump the water on her head, which Edna Kiplagat didn't do.