Great race and perfectly ran by Mechaal. Katir did all the work for the last 700. I think Mario's fine and honestly, goin up against Mechaal and Katir, to podium there is a great result for him
No disrespect to Mechaal, but I think Garcia Romo should be expected to beat him in most cases. Second-plus quicker PB, Mechaal is 32 and this is really his best race since Tokyo (he did have an exceptional 7:30 3k). It looked like he was moving to 3k/5k last year and this is really a turning-back-the-clock performance for him.
Beating Katir and Romo FTW is probably his best race since Tokyo, you’re right, but it didn’t come out of nowhere. In the London DL race a week ago he ran 3:31.43 which put him right in the thick of things, .01 ahead of Tim Cheruiyot and .25 ahead of Romo; what’s more, he ran second-to-last through 800m (1:55.5), splitting 1:50.2 for the last 800 and 40.0 for the last 300. That caused me to check his WA profile and I noticed he had a quietly strong indoor season, finishing 2nd to Jakob in the 3k at Euros and running the 4th fastest 1500 time in the world (3:33.28).
The 1500 rounds at Worlds are going to be an absolute gauntlet.
Mario Garcia Romo has seemed to be more of an 8/15 guy or pure miler in the past. Yes, I know he was all-American in XC in 2021 but that was the Covid year. To be a good miler you have to be strong. That being said, Ritz is likely training him like Ollie, who essentially trains like Joe with slightly less mileage and slightly less speed. Ritz is turning Garcia Romo into a distance runner, not a middle distance runner. A race like this should have been perfect for Garcia Romo in the past. His last 100 isn’t there like it used to be.
Complete guess on top of knowing 0% of what's going on with Romo at training camp or injury.
He's probably feeling the effects of jumping into a new training group that upped the milage and intensity from what he was doing at Ole Miss. As we have already seen this season, he has improved but it's harder on the body to maintain this for a whole season. Happened to me from going from high school to a college team and I've seen it happen with many others.
Good news is next year he could very well maintain for an entire season plus improve PRs.
Mario Garcia Romo has seemed to be more of an 8/15 guy or pure miler in the past. Yes, I know he was all-American in XC in 2021 but that was the Covid year. To be a good miler you have to be strong. That being said, Ritz is likely training him like Ollie, who essentially trains like Joe with slightly less mileage and slightly less speed. Ritz is turning Garcia Romo into a distance runner, not a middle distance runner. A race like this should have been perfect for Garcia Romo in the past. His last 100 isn’t there like it used to be.
Garcia Romo has never been an 8/15 runner. He finished 3rd at NCAAs in the 3K and has a 7:33 pr. He isn't gonna light the world on fire at 10K, but he is definitely a 1,500/3,000 guy, not an 800/1,500.
Ritz is a rubbish coach with a huge budget, and every athlete knows it. Nuguse needs to get a result at World Champs off the added strength. Then get out of there before his speed is sapped.
Mechaal looks back to 2021 form. Katir lacks an extra gear in his kick. But most concerning is whether there is something up with Mario injury or fitness-wise?