Nick Willis runs 1:46 in an 800 time trial!

Didnt you just answer your own question?

In the 1500...

Who?

Must be in great shape. 3.32 at least?

1:46.9 which is a lot slower! He can go 3:35 although I hope (I am rooting for him) that he can go 3:25!

ventollin lets get an analysis. Should be done already

Paced to 700m, with the second pacer jumping in as the first lap ends.

I never understand why this isn't legal in competition for record attempts

Illegal pacing. Doesn't count as a legit practice time trial.

"I never understand why this isn't legal in competition for record attempts"

To seriously answer that question - for it to count in COMPETITION any pacer must be a COMPETITOR.

A competitor can't jump in during the middle of a race.

My gut says that he's in 3:30-3:32 shape, similar to last year. I have no idea what speed he has at this point. Since this is a championship year, my guess is that he's been focusing more on speed than in the past, so while his strength might not be quite as good as last year, I'll bet he's all around better racer this year. He's not going for time this year, he's going for the win.

Well actually 100% the opposite. He's been focusing strength. He's run two 5000m races against good comp, one the first over Robertson in NZ and the other was second in the NY Diamond League meet to True at the line.

He just did a low key 1500m in Italy as a rust-buster the other day. He is preparing for for three 1500m races over a 72 hours span at World's. They run the first round and semi-final back-to-back, then a rest day and then the finals.

This guy ran 3:51 indoor twice.

he is going to outkick Kiprop and everyone else come Peking!

iston wrote:

https://www.facebook.com/willisrunning

3 days before Monaco. How fast can he go?

OP, he essentially ran 1:47 (1:46.9), not 1:46 like you claim. Please round up like your math teacher taught you, and stop being misleading.

messi wrote:OP, he essentially ran 1:47 (1:46.9), not 1:46 like you claim. Please round up like your math teacher taught you, and stop being misleading.

Nah, he ran under 1:47. Its a 1:46.

Star wrote:

Illegal pacing. Doesn't count as a legit practice time trial.

"I never understand why this isn't legal in competition for record attempts"

To seriously answer that question - for it to count in COMPETITION any pacer must be a COMPETITOR.

A competitor can't jump in during the middle of a race.

Can't the 2nd pacer start the race on the line and just wait by the starting line for the competitors to come around?

question??? wrote:

Can't the 2nd pacer start the race on the line and just wait by the starting line for the competitors to come around?

No. That is expressly forbidden.

If you are behind a lap you are really no longer competing with that person.

Pacing used to be banned all together but it was impossible to distinguish who was intentionally pacing vs. someone just going out hard and either falling back or dropping out.

A runner standing still land waiting for the pack to come back around is too obvious.

It's a good rule. To get a record you need to at least close the race on your own.

messi is correct. The convention of referrering as this to a 1:46 is wrong.

Star wrote:

question??? wrote:

Can't the 2nd pacer start the race on the line and just wait by the starting line for the competitors to come around?

No. That is expressly forbidden.

If you are behind a lap you are really no longer competing with that person.

Pacing used to be banned all together but it was impossible to distinguish who was intentionally pacing vs. someone just going out hard and either falling back or dropping out.

A runner standing still land waiting for the pack to come back around is too obvious.

It's a good rule. To get a record you need to at least close the race on your own.

Interesting discussion.

Why shouldn't a pacer be allowed to start off jogging, doing 800 in ~2:50 while the record-attempter is paced through to 1200 at the same time? Then the "fresh" pacer can pick up and lead the attempter through a lap.

None of this seems any worse or against the spirit of competition than someone running the first laps with absolutely zero intention of finishing. So why not?

I would guess that at that point its mostly arbitrary. I mean, no one wants a world record to be easy, and adding in a pacer like that would certainly make it easier. And having a pacer start the race, then drop out at least maintains the illusion that the pacer is part of the race.

There's a certain abstract threshold that we see as acceptable assistance in breaking a world record, and having a pacer jump in in the later stages of a race is somewhat past that threshold.

This is the one meet on the calendar where everyone throws out tactics and just goes all out from the gun. It's going to be fun!