Letsrun analysis of the 5000m is wrong

Lot of little things. Edris for sure owes something to Cheptegai and Tanui for draining Mo's tank last weekned.

This time in the 5000 he fought for the lead too early, crucially against Borchardt at 600 to go when he could have let Borchart shoulder the pace, then the three Ethios jumped him and Kejelcha poured on the gas which Farah was unwilling to match. Mo was boxed in at 110 to go by Chelimo, but Kejelcha opened a lane inside for him. He was just too gassed to use it to get Edris. Edris has crazy closing speed the final 100 like Mo, the difference was Muktar was able to draft his compatriot for 300m and was fresher.

Lot of 20/20 hindsight here. The fact is, the overall race setup favored Mo, but the Ethios finally figured out how to beat a somewhat fatigued Mo.

http://www.nbcsports.com/video/event/2017-iaaf-worlds

It is simply w one to say that tactics/race management is not important at world class level.

Look at Jenkins in the qualifying round. He ran on the outside, he surged up multiple times. He was poorly placed with 400m to go. The result is that he didn't qualify. Don't tell me that Knight is better than Jenkins at this point.

You can also look back at 600m to go. Look at the sudden push that Farah was forced to do when Butchart came to his side. Farah is not a strong push type of guy. He's a wind up type of guy. That surely took a few tenths away from his last lap. He also was up front from the start rather than relaxing the first laps. There are a lot of things you can look at which explains his defeat.

‘I don’t want to do more than I need to do,’ Farah said.

He wasn't capable of doing more either.

This race shows how impressive Farah's dominance over the last few championships cycles has been. It's hard to get the win when it's tactically made or lost in a few seconds of decision making when others are also calculating their plans too. Five out of six 5000m championship races ain't a bad return.

Mo the doper is DONE wrote:

‘I don’t want to do more than I need to do,’ Farah said.

He wasn't capable of doing more either.

That was in response to Kjelcha's premature kick. He was right not to follow Kjelcha, he knew that kick was unsustainable, and it was.

Edris was right behind and drafted over that next section, Edris said himself that they Ethiopians planned to work together and this was a planned move. Coming into the home straight, had chelimo not boxed in Farah and prevented him from swinging wide off the bend, the result MIGHT have been different.

But Farah was stuck, physically couldn't push past. The inside lane only opened up with 60m or less to go, that was too late and Farah was tired by that point.

The fact Farah was able to kick again over that last 60m and come from 4th into 2nd was frankly astounding.

Nonsense wrote:

Farah was tired

Looks like we agree.

A lot of speculation. Also, they did report that Farah may have been tired from the 10K, eight days earlier.

Hard for me to accept that Kejelcha wasn't going for the win. He went early because Mo is usually unstoppable the last 400. Either way, I loved the finish.

Rainy Day wrote:

A lot of speculation. Also, they did report that Farah may have been tired from the 10K, eight days earlier.

Hard for me to accept that Kejelcha wasn't going for the win. He went early because Mo is usually unstoppable the last 400. Either way, I loved the finish.

Whether he meant to or not he did end up sacrificing himself. By towing Edris round like that he set it up perfectly for him whilst Chelimo boxed in Farah.

Given Chelimo's pre race antics, it's hard to believe that he didn't try and box in Farah. He mimed slitting the throat of the MoBot.

What you people don't realize is that the only reason Mo even medaled was because he was boxed, Chelimo had to wide and Kejelcha moved out to give Mo and lane to run. Plus Kejelcha like they said had a slower last 200 and Chelimo probably from going wide couldn't finish as strong plus coming from much farther back.

Every other Mo race where the guy getting 2nd or 3rd is boxed or has to go wide I never hear these excuses from you guys that that's the reason they didn't win, mo shouldn't have let himself get boxed...

Nonsense wrote:

Mo the doper is DONE wrote:

He wasn't capable of doing more either.

That was in response to Kjelcha's premature kick. He was right not to follow Kjelcha, he knew that kick was unsustainable, and it was.

Edris was right behind and drafted over that next section, Edris said himself that they Ethiopians planned to work together and this was a planned move. Coming into the home straight, had chelimo not boxed in Farah and prevented him from swinging wide off the bend, the result MIGHT have been different.

But Farah was stuck, physically couldn't push past. The inside lane only opened up with 60m or less to go, that was too late and Farah was tired by that point.

The fact Farah was able to kick again over that last 60m and come from 4th into 2nd was frankly astounding.

Edris did not say that was their planned move, he said the plan was to get 2nd and 3rd and they wanted to work together

He said the plan changed mid race when they realised Farah was vulnerable that day.

Farah getting boxed was his downfall and that was likely due to him having a bit less in the tank coming into the race. It has nothing to do with Edris running a 52 last lap as the article suggests nor does it have anything to do with a 3:57 last 1600m.

If Chelimo wasn't on his shoulder he could have swung wide off the bend like he always does and there would have been a bigger battle for Gold down the home straight between Farah and Edris. I'm not saying Farah would have won, he looked tired and worked harder to get to 4900m than Edris did. But Chelimo killed Farah's chances of Gold.

Kjelcha moved out unintentionally and that gave Farah the shot at silver, which he immediately took, kicking again on extremely tired legs.

If you watched Kejelcha race before he nearly always kicks hard at 600m to go, way too early and this cost him in some races.Mo always try to lead and control the race in the last lap.Mo was struggling really bad when kejelcha kicked.Edris is obviously more fresh, therefore could stick to kejelcha kick.I actually agree though i think mo would've won the 5k ,if it wasn't for the fast 10k he did.

If I am Edris, I am making a copy of my medal and quietly giving it to Kejelcha.

Hated seeing Mo blaming team tactics and fatigue from the 10k for his loss.

He ran a damned food race and got beat by a younger world class 5k guy.

I guess this goes with the turf. I read the Coe and Ovett books and neither of them could ever accept that they were fairly beaten in any race.

Cram too as I recall -- may be wrong there.

Steve Scott is the only world class runner who wrote a book and accepted blame for his losses.

larkimm wrote:

This race shows how impressive Farah's dominance over the last few championships cycles has been. It's hard to get the win when it's tactically made or lost in a few seconds of decision making when others are also calculating their plans too. Five out of six 5000m championship races ain't a bad return.

This is a very good observation in this conversation. Over the past 6 years I've seldom considered how difficult it is for Mo to ALWAYS get it right against men who are very equal (or even better) in terms of 5000/10000 ability. I took it for granted many times because, well, he always won.

I think the article on Edris was supposed to drop all this micro-analysis and give credit to the guy, but I do agree it misses the point of what happens in the end of a championship race, and this thread has many valid reasons things turned out as they did.

In the end, it really is a complicated mix of many things that allowed Edris to pull it off, the LRC staff just tried to be clever and ignore them all.

I would like to bump this thread after Farah proved the letsrun critics to be wrong again.

He won over the same guys with a 52 last 400m, this time in a 13:06 race. Farah's kick didn't disappear because he is 34 or whatever.

Clearly, as I stated, he was fatigued from the 10k before and on fresh legs has no problems running a 52 with a STORMING last 100m.

Chelimo didn't box him in this time, but still tried his awful antics of barging and pushing his competitors rather than going around the outside like everyone else.

Farah came out on top when it was a level playing field. In fact, Edris has had more rest than Mo since the WC.