Fisher was too patient. GREAT race, but could have finished 2nd.

I feel like he MIGHT have had a better chance to medal with a long drive home like he did it at USAs in the 5000.

I really thought "holy $#!7 it'd he bad ass when he went now to 60 to 62 per lap" with 1300 to go...

He MIGHT have medalled then. Problem I have is, that if he'd gotten 4th in this type of race, people here would say it was stupid. Hard with the 10/10 hindsight critics.

I really believe he felt very very good and might have been speculating to win it within the last 200 and when you see his very fast close (53,xx) it was for sure a possibility in his mind.

So while it might have been possible even more, I think he did an amazing job. You cannot blame bad tactics too much when he closed in 53. Often that's enough to well... win!

Pikachu

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Yes, the Viren method should have been applied...just get to the front with 600 to go and under no circumstances let anyone pass you unless you hit the wall. This may well have at least got a podium.

That said, no-one knew who had what left on the last lap. He may have calculated that he could out-kick them - he certainly looked good all through the race.

As it was, I think he shows great promise for the future, but blew his chance at a medal here.

He has all the talent and speed to win, he needs to believe in himself more imo. Seems like he doesn't think he can beat the top guys. I think he can. Yeah, he picks off a few fading guys down the stretch, but thats just not enough. He needs the stones to take the lead and force the issue.

Grant Fisher had the 2nd highest PB of any runner in the field, which he set this season. Except for Cheptegui, nobody in that race was better than him. His tactics should be second guessed.

To put the matter another way, defending Fisher's tactics is an indirect way of insulting him, by stating that he lost because he wasn't good enough to get on the podium. I'm not buying that. He absolutely was, and is, good enough to be a 10K World medalist.

Fisher improved a lot this year, but the missing was experience. A few DL races this year would may have mad the difference, although hard to tell as it may have compromised his endurance building. He will have to go to some DL races to fine tune those races.

He might medal in the 5000m, but Ingebritsen in the game will make this another race...

Btw - Ingebritsen had lost a few races till he mastered those DL races.

This is probably closer to the truth. Barega & Aregawi did a lot of what people here are thinking Fisher should have done - and it didn't work out that well for them and its hard to argue GF is fitter than they are. Is it possible that he (GF) could have sneaked another 3 tenths of a second by doing things a bit differently - possibly. But My guess is any of the top 5 could say the same thing. Mburu was tripping over his teammates for awile and Kiplimo lead a bunch etc etc. Its always so easy after the race to say what people should have done - not so much during the race.

This is only because fast 10,000m races don't exist anymore, Grant got the perfect situation with Ahmed and capitalized on it. Cheptegei (has), Barega, Kiplimo and probably Aregawi could run faster in a similar race setup.

I agree his tactics should be second guessed. But I disagree that he should be able to outrun everyone who has a slower PB.

Fisher set his PB in a time trial, a "race" that was set up so he could run as fast as possible. He had multiple pacers, and didn't have to worry about strategy or surging or any of that.

That he needed these conditions to get the AR shows just how hard it is to run fast in a real race. Fisher is still relatively young and inexperienced. As his performance at USAs shows, he still has not mastered tactics and strategy.

You are right. A Ferrari can get around a race track faster than a VW. It does not follow that someone who can drive a Ferrari fast under ideal conditions "should" win races. Time trialing is not racing.

Could've, should've, would've. He could have just as easily finished 9th. I'm personally pretty proud of him finishing 4th.

I mean but Mburu in the last K you could argue ran the race Grant probably should have. He was fearless taking the lead and never letting himself get shuffled back too far. He really outfoxed both Grant and Kiplimo.