What An Incredible Lineup – Rupp and Lagat in the 5000; Symmonds, Centro and Manzano in the 1500; World #1 Duane Solomon in the 800

2013 Herculis Men’s Preview

by LetsRun.com
July 17, 2013

The men’s mid-d and distance action at the 2013 Herculis Monaco is really very exciting stuff for American fans. Medallists Matt Centrowitz and Leo Manzano battle Asbel Kiprop, Mo Farah and Nick Symmonds – yes Nick Symmonds – in the 1500; Bernard Lagat and Galen Rupp go for the American record in a clash with Kenya’s best in the 5000; and world #1 Duane Solomon of the US battles 3 of the top 8 in the world in th men’s 800.

Our preview of the women’s mid-d and distance action, which is highlighted by a great 1500 featuring 2011 world champion Jenny Simpson, is here.

Men’s 1500: What A Race: Leo, Centro, Kiprop, Nick Symmonds and Mo Farah

Technically the men’s 1500 isn’t a Diamond League (DL) event, meaning it doesn’t count in the DL standings. Don’t tell that to US distance fans as this is must watch tv.

2011 World bronze medallist Matthew Centrowitz and 2012 Olympic silver medallist Leo Manzano race here and will face 2008 Olympic and 2011 World champ Asbel Kiprop of Kenya, who also is the fastest man in the world so far this year. Centrowitz come into this meet looking for a pick me up after dropping out of the first race of his life in Paris. Manzano, on the other hand, ran the second best time of his life in Paris.

That in itself is worth the price of admission, but we are just getting started. Olympic 10,000 and 5,000 Mo Farah, who has an incredible kick, races a big time 1500 for the first time since he became a world beater after switching over to coach Alberto Salazar in 2011. Farah last raced a DL 1500 at this meet back in 2009 when he ran his pb of 3:33.98.

How fast will the 10,000 and 5,000 man now run here in the 1500?

The race also features the great question as to how fast will the US’s third fastest 800 man in history, Nick Symmonds, run in the first truly big time 1500 of his career? Symmonds has been begging the meet director all summer to let him run the 1500 here and he got his wish. Symmonds said he’s going to be ready to run 3:32-3:33 here (MB: Nick Symmonds “I will be prepared to run 3:32, 3:33 if I can get into the Monaco 1500.“). Will he back up his promise?

The field also features some Kenyan intrigue as it includes another Kenyan team member for Moscow as Bethwell Birgen got a wild-card to the Kenyan team after finishing fifth at the Kenyan Trials. Despite the fifth place finish, he was named to the 4-person Kenyan team.

Interesting enough, the man the Kenyan selectors overlooked in naming Birgen to the Kenyan team is here as well, Caleb Ndiku – the 2010 world junior champ. Ndiku was fourth at the Kenyan Trials. If Ndiku beats Birgen here, is there any chance the Kenyans change their minds?

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Birgen has run faster than Ndiku this year at 1500, but Ndiku beat him at the Kenyan Trials. The one time they raced on the circuit this year, it was very close as just .04 separated them at Prefontaine (Birgen was 5th at Pre in 3:50.42 and Ndiku sixth in 3:50.46). For their career head to head meetings, Ndiku leads six to four. Ndiku, at a minimum, has something to prove.

2012 Olympic finalist İlham Tanui Özbilen is here as well.

Quick Take #1: What a treat this race is. Such an interesting race on so many angles. Whenever medal hopefuls Manzano, Centrowiz and Kiprop race, we are always paying a lot of attention but now you add in Farah and Symmonds to the mix. We’re definitely going to have to tape this one so we can watch the replay over and over.

Quick Take From 7/18/2013: We caught up with Manzano this morning at his hotel: LRC Catching Up With The Olympic 1500 Silver Medallist Leo Manzano In Monaco 

Men’s 800: World #1 Duane Solomon Takes On World #3 Ayanleh Souleiman

With world record holder David Rudisha out of the 2013 Worlds with an injury, the 800 men are probably super motivated as a guaranteed medal has been removed from the equation. It just got A LOT easier to medal and win the gold medal in Moscow.

Given the way he’s run so far this year, Ethiopia’s Mohamed Aman likely will be the Moscow favorite. Aman is done racing before Moscow but there’s a chance that 2013 US Champ Duane Solomon ends up as the Worlds favorite. Solomon is the world leader at 1:43.27 – .06 faster than Aman. A big showing here by Solomon and wherever else he races before Moscow and he might be the favorite.

This race will be far from a cakewalk for Solomon however. If Solomon is going to win, he’ll have to beat the 2013 world #3 Ayanleh Souleiman of Djibouti. The 20-year old is known for being a miler (3:50.21 mile/3:30.91 1500 at age 19 last year) but given the fact that he’s number three in the world at 800 this year at 1:43.63, he may seriously considering running the 800 at Worlds if he runs well here as the 800 is a bit down this year with Rudisha out and Olympic silver medallist Nijel Amos struggling to come back from his own injury.

Souleiman has been running great at 1500 as well (wins in Oslo and Paris).

Two of Kenya’s Moscow team members are here, but neither has impressed at all on the European circuit. The 20-year old youngster, Jeremiah Mutai, who was the 2009 world Youth silver medalist in the 400 hurdles, was just 7th in Ostrava. He got onto the Kenyan team after finishing third at the Kenyan Trials. Before he did that, we had questioned his 1:43.9 hand time being his PB as it was way faster (1.5 seconds) than anything he’s done before, but he ran a 1:44.59 at the Kenyan trials so we aren’t questioning it any more.

The runner-up from the Kenyan Trials is here as well in Ferguson Cheruiyot. We’re sure there is an interesting story behind Cheruiyot (if you know, please email us) as the guy is 28-years old and has ZERO results listed for him on the various results databases we have access to. He was just fourth in Ostrava but given how new he is to the circiut, he may do better this time around.

21-year old Frenchman Pierre-Ambroise Bosse has been running great all year with runner-ups in Rome and Lausanne and wins in Hengelo and at the European U-23 champs.

All together this race has four of the eight fastest men from 2013 in the field – Solomon (#1), Souleiman (#3), Mutai (#7), and Bosse (#8).

2012 Olympic bronze medalist Timothy Kitum who ran 1:42.53 last year to get bronze at age 19 is here as well but he’s been running horribly all year long.

Quick Take #1: In case you are wondering, Ayanleh Souleiman could definitely double in Moscow as the 800 is over before the 1500 heats begin.

Quick Take #2: Poland’s Marcin Lewandowski, the 12th fastest man this year, is here as well.

Update 7/19/13: Start lists has been modified. Tyler Mulder of USA is in  Souleiman is out.

Men’s 5000

Galen Rupp and Lagat Going Head to Head

In our weekly recap this week, we said the odds of a US medal in the men’s 5000 were getting smaller by the day. We said that mainly because Yenew Alamirew of Ethiopia and Mo Farah of GBR have looked so good already this year and it looks as if Kenya’s Isiah Koech is on track to join them.

We’ll find out if that’s really true as the top two Americans in Galen Rupp and Bernard Lagat will face Kenya’s best in this one. In the process, might the American record also go down?

The top four guys from the Kenyan Trials are all here in Isiah Koech (13:35.12 at Trials), Thomas Longosiwa (13:36.82), Edwin Soi (13:39.49) and Augustine Choge (13:41.59). As you can see by the times, the 19-year old Koech destroyed everyone win to win last weekend and is the big favorite here in our minds. Soi won at Prefontaine.

Albert Rop cruising to 12:59 last weekend.

Albert Rop, whom we incorrectly said was Kenyan last week, is here as well. He broke 13:00 all alone last week in Belgium and now runs for Bahrain. He’s the fourth fastest man on the year.

Quick Take #1: The meet record in Monaco is 12:53.11 and the meet director has said he wants that to go down. Conveniently, the American record set by Lagat at this meet in 2011 is 12:53.60. Might Lagat or Rupp get it? We guess it’s possible but no one in the world this year has run faster than 12:54.95.

Quick Take #2: Ben True is here as well. The time he should be looking for is 13:10.00. If he breaks that, he’ll knock Adam Goucher off the top-10 all-time in US history.

Quick Take #3: Arizona’s Lawi Lalang is in the field. We’ve long felt he might be the first collegian to go sub-13:00 and this might be his best chance to do it before graduating next year. At least one person is happy Lalang is racing Galen Rupp, the person who started this messageboard thread 17 months ago: Lawi Lalang Is Better Than Galen Rupp. Even if Lalang beats Rupp on Friday, we hope the guy or gal who started that thread last year issued an apology after Rupp won his silver medal in the Olympics.

Update: Start list has been changed. American Andy Bayer, who recently ran 3:34, gets a big opportunity here now. More: MB: How did Andy Bayer make it into Monaco 5000 DL over Hassan Mead or Bumbi???