habs wrote:
Yea, that wasn't the face of someone shutting it down for safety. He might bluff and say that to avoid giving his mile competitors any confidence, but Kerr looked like he was hurting with some sort of injury. He might have had no choice.
Anybody have confirmation on whether or not he's hurt?
I'm actually very confused by his actions, as it makes absolutely no sense for him to have run 4:20 as the anchor if he was healthy.
1) He had to know that regardless of how the race played out, he'd have to run Sub-4 at minimum in order to win.
2) His position wasn't fantastic, but it wasn't terrible either. He got the baton in 6th place. However, 3rd - 6th were a big cluster with less than HALF a second of separation, and Kerr was the best among them. He was also only down 2 seconds on 1st place.
3) Based on Point 2 and final placing, he could've given any sort of decent effort (for him) and placed 3rd - 4th at minimum. This would require a run around 3:57 - 3:58 or so, which is definitely within his capabilities, given that he didn't have to lead.
4) If he didn't want to run 3:57 - 3:58 to get 3rd - 4th place, why bother running at all? Sure, it's not 1st, but it's still points. NM could easily have subbed in someone who'd be willing to go all out.