Coevett wrote:
Says the guy who has only posted here in the last three years to accuse me of being a liar, usually and not very coincidentally around the same time as another anonymous and more hysterical poster is doing the same.
And people here are constantly referencing that 1:49 at 16 as evidence Jakob hasn't got speed, so go home devastated Observski.
We don't use his old 800m time to evaluate his speed/muscle fiber ratio. But we saw dozens of races of him and it's always the same vs other good runners with more speed - he gets smoked/destroyed on the last 100-200m. Especially in slower races, like the European Indoor Championship 2019 1500m. But even in Doha, which was a fast race.
Runners can have a strong 800m time without being very fast-twitch, just by being extremely strong aerobically. Klosterhalfen is a similar runner to Ingebrigtsen - lots of endurance, stamina, but no strong sprint finish. Yet she ran a 1:59 - which is probably equivalent to 1:44 or so.
So even if Jakob runs a 1:43 or 1:44, as you or some other people think (in my opinion it's not even guaranteed), as long as he keeps getting outsprinted at the end of competitive races we won't consider him a "speedy 1500 guy" or "FT runner in 1500".
And the argument "but he closed a race in a 53!" also gets old. Lagat closed a race in a 52-second lap as 41-year old. He never broke 1:48 in the 800. So Lagat is now a speed monster? Closing a long-distance race quick is more of a sign of supreme aerobic ability, as in "there is a lot left in the tank at the end" rather than raw, sprint speed.