Ingerbrigsten on the rivals absence: If you ask everyone else, it's completely idiotic

Unless you deem Jake a liar this is what he has relayed as far as his thinking. He was already leaning this direction in pre-season planning, and it was further affirmed with how exhausting CG were mentally and physically. Ultimately, athletes make choices and have an understanding of their limits. It's why Jakob didn't run the 3,000 in Monaco, where he could've gone after 7:22-7:25 possibly. And we'll see if he races Lausanne or opts to rest for the DL Final after a busy European Champs (seems like he is palnning on resting for now).

letsrun.com

RRW: Stepping Down In Distance, Jake Wightman Hopes To Show His Range

LetsRun.com

"I enjoy the 800's a lot more than the fifteens. I can do the 800 and not have the same expectations. ...Coming here to do the 800 is just something I'm actually excited to do. I hope it will be all right. It's an unknown. I'...

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“Even in March when we were planning the season out we knew it was going to be pretty tough to do fifteen worlds, fifteen Comms, fifteen Europeans,” Wightman told reporters at a press conference here today. He added: “Before Eugene I thought three championships was easy. Not easy. As soon as Eugene happened (it was) so tough to come back.”

He was physically tired from three rounds at Worlds then an exhausting 1500m final at Commonwealths only 18 days later where he lost ground in the final 200 meters and had to settle for third behind Australia’s Oliver Hoare and Kenya’s Timothy Cheruiyot.
“My Commonwealths was probably the least enjoyable champs I’ve ever had,” he said.
But stepping down for the 800m, where he has a personal best of 1:44.18 from nearly two years ago, Wightman feels newly energized if a little fearful. He’s never raced in the 800m at a high-level championships.
“Coming here to do the 800 is just something I’m actually excited to do,” Wightman said. “I hope it will be all right. It’s an unknown. I’ve never actually done an 800 championship. I want to show I can be as competitive over eight as fifteen. I think if I were to do a fifteen here I wouldn’t have come. So, 800 meters is just a real re-fresh. I’m like, I’m actually looking forward to racing again.”

Kinda amazing the way this dude can't manage to do a single interview without coming across as a prick

Yes and no. It's kind of a clever narrative he's built which is basically "the athletes can choose what they want to do and the average person doesn't know or understand the reasons for those decisions" (which he is 100% right about), but he is also touching on this "some guys aren't turning up because they don't think they can win" angle which is basically saying "they aren't turning up because they don't think they can beat me, and that's why they don't think they can win". I mean this is pretty obvious no? And you know he's doing that because if every 1500m runner on the planet took the "I will only enter if I think I can win" POV, then realistically how many entrants are we getting in a championships - 3 or 4? So he's channelling this directly at Wightman, Katir, Kerr et al.

So it comes across as being very milk toast, almost defensive of his contemporaries but read between the lines and there is a little spice there (which I kind of like tbh).

On the topic of Wightman, it's an interesting one. I was personally surprised he ran the 1500m at CWG, I would have thought that he scratched that event and came back for Euros (which I think is now more prestigious but that could be an individual thing for him?) or he ran the 800 in Birmingham (where he could have easily medalled) then come back for the 1500 in Munich. Is he ducking Jakob? Possibly. He could just be ducking the 1500m event because having 3 major 1500m programs in a season is unprecedented and not easy - mentally more than even physically. I think had he gone to Birmingham and been able to win in a 3.37/8 race with a huge kick-down, he might have decided to go again in Munich, but considering that final was basically as good and tough as the world final, maybe he is thinking longer term and not wanting to frazzle himself for next season. Back to Jakob - well to be the champ you have to beat the champ and right now it's not him, Jake has the cards in his hand because last time they met he beat him and I would have no problem if he came out and simply said "Comm games didn't go the way I planned (either race or result) and I don't want to give any impetus back to this guy heading into the worlds next year or Paris the year after. If you want to call it "ducking", call it "strategic ducking"" - or something like that.

Reality, as always is somewhere in between. I think absolutely nothing less of Wightman for running the 800 in Munich.

Love his honesty and confidence

it's not insulting. all or most of those guys did the CW games while Jakob was skipping MOnaco to better prepare for Euros. Obviously those guys all believe in themselves, but they are tired. everybody has a limit. 3 championships with rounds in 1 month is insane. You can read into how you want.

I think Wightman felt the pressure to back up what he did at Worlds, and everyone has known that in a cool situation the Men's 1500 and Women's 800 were THE events of the Games. So I think dodging the Kenyans, Hoare and Kerr in the 1500 would've felt like a bit of a lame move. I'm happy he stuck with it. I don't think people are getting on Wightman much for this one. He will face Jakob in the DL Final, and 3 Champs in this short a time is pretty ridiculous. Additionally the 800 will be no cakewalk for him. Also, Katir running the 5,000 isn't a dodge at all as he'll have to face Jakob there. So Jakob is a factor but not a huge one to me. I don't think many of these athletes run for the "easy" medals or wins as is. Certainly not Katir or Wightman who routinely have taken their lumps.

I don't what were the reason of Katir to opt to 5000m, certainly not to avoid Jakob (he will enjoy such a confrontation) but I think he need an European title to start. Maybe he think his chances are better in the 5000m than the 1500m.

Source

If anyone's not showing up for stuff it's Jakob to attack those world records he has maybe 1 or 2 years left to attack.

He could find out next year this was his peak year.

Not even one. If it happened once you'd call it a misunderstanding. But it's been happening consistently for three years now. And at least one of his brothers is the same.

Milquetoast

No different than Aouita or Ovett. These guys think differently than us.

is that French? :D

What is being a prick about defending Wightmans decision and saying that the reporters havent been following along if they think this was some spur of the moment decision to avoid Ingebrigtsen? Rather than being a prick yourself by calling him a prick you might realize that this is based upon a mis translation and mis representation of his norwegian interview.

When you are seething with hate against a whole nation you'll easily chose one way two read an interview, the one omitting that he defended Wightmans decision. Says more about you than Ingebrigtsen tbh.