I have learned to not infer how fatigued Mantz is by how he looks during a race. You'd think everyone here would have gotten that by now too.
You're right, but in this case Young was celebrating the entire last mile pumping up the crowd, he even split off the tangent to high-five someone, and then in the last 100m gave Mantz a motion. It's pretty clear Young wasn't gunning to be #1 across the line.
Congrats to Young and Mantz. I think they’ve shown class through the whole process. The whole qualifying criteria was ridiculous and yet they took it in stride and never complained. Definitely earned the right to enjoy their well-deserved moment, however they chose.
So little room for error when only two guaranteed places are on the table. If anything, their finish is evidence of their training mentality and the journey they went through together, the realization of their dreams, becoming a reality.
Go Cougars and go USA!
Great post. I love how selfless and grateful they are in interviews too. Humble dudes.
Mantz said in the post race interview that he wasn't sure he would finish the last 2 miles and Young told him to just stick on his hip. Young definitely would have won if they were racing.
Yep, Young looked really good for a 2:09-low in the heat. That was an easy win for him if he really hammered the last two miles. But, there’s no point. You have the Olympic spot locked up, you don’t get paid extra for time, and, if they truly are splitting all of the money, then it’s a win-win.
I agree Mantz generally looks horrible in races, but, honestly, if I had one critique, it’s that he hammers his workouts to hard and doesn’t take enough downtime to recover from hard marathon efforts. I realize it’s a confidence thing, but Young just seems so much more chill in workouts. Like, why end an 8-mile PMP that went 4:45 pace for seven miles w a 4:19 mile? That’s just leaving it in training.
But I’m very happy for both of them. They are both really good dudes.
Mantz said in the post race interview that he wasn't sure he would finish the last 2 miles and Young told him to just stick on his hip. Young definitely would have won if they were racing.
Yep, Young looked really good for a 2:09-low in the heat. That was an easy win for him if he really hammered the last two miles. But, there’s no point. You have the Olympic spot locked up, you don’t get paid extra for time, and, if they truly are splitting all of the money, then it’s a win-win.
I agree Mantz generally looks horrible in races, but, honestly, if I had one critique, it’s that he hammers his workouts to hard and doesn’t take enough downtime to recover from hard marathon efforts. I realize it’s a confidence thing, but Young just seems so much more chill in workouts. Like, why end an 8-mile PMP that went 4:45 pace for seven miles w a 4:19 mile? That’s just leaving it in training.
But I’m very happy for both of them. They are both really good dudes.
Yeah, I made the same point in another thread. They were doing prospective MP runs at an average of 2:04 pace, and Mantz burned the last mile to finish 15 seconds ahead of Young. Whatever your opinion of Mantz, he's not close to being a 2:04 guy at this point so he was training at a race pace that is beyond him. As Jakob has said, the people pushing that hard in training betray a lack of confidence in their own ability
Mantz said in the post race interview that he wasn't sure he would finish the last 2 miles and Young told him to just stick on his hip. Young definitely would have won if they were racing.
Pretty clear that Young would have won if they had decided to race the last mile. No disrespect to Mantz. Young looked stronger today. Would have liked to have seen them race to the finish but their goal was to make the team & that's what they did. Maybe they're splitting the money. Maybe Mantz has bigger contract bonuses that they'll split. Maybe Young was just deferring to his teammate who probably led a lot of hard workouts during the build. It's all fine, just took some of the drama away. They barely showed the race for 3rd.
What an anticlimax. These two sit on Panning nearly the whole race and don’t offer to help when they are three away from the rest. Then, they don’t have an honest effort at the finish! If they are looking to maximize their combined bonuses then that’s race fixing and manipulation.
Obviously they are going to sit on whoever is in front. They already had the auto qualifying time from Chicago. It would be stupid for them to try and run 2:08:10 in the heat and risk bonking. I’m sure if they didn’t have the auto qualifier they would have helped out Panning. Everybody else in that race had the same opportunity to just sit behind Panning, but they were the only ones who could.
What an anticlimax. These two sit on Panning nearly the whole race and don’t offer to help when they are three away from the rest. Then, they don’t have an honest effort at the finish! If they are looking to maximize their combined bonuses then that’s race fixing and manipulation.
It’s also likely a breach of contract if they discussed performance bonuses with each other. The details of those contracts are almost always confidential. Talking about your bonus incentives with someone else would violate that. That said, it would be a bad look to sue your own athlete that just won the trials, so I’m sure nothing will come of it.
I’m sure they had discussed this ahead of time. Mantz probably has the bigger contract bonus for a win so him winning would result in a bigger pot for them to split.
Anticlimax for you - not for them. Nailed their spot at the Games. May or may not have had a financial understanding. For pros, a good day at the office. I have to admit, I would've like to have seen Albertson take third, fine mojo in the heat to go for it. Young looked good and it wouldn't surprise me if he went top 10 in Paris.
I know running is different but I can’t imagine any other sport where an athlete lets their competitor win. Kinda why running isnt a good sport for the fans I guess.
Mantz said in the post race interview that he wasn't sure he would finish the last 2 miles and Young told him to just stick on his hip. Young definitely would have won if they were racing.
why end an 8-mile PMP that went 4:45 pace for seven miles w a 4:19 mile? That’s just leaving it in training.
I mostly agree, but it's only leaving it in training if you don't execute on race day. Clearly Mantz is just a dog.
I know running is different but I can’t imagine any other sport where an athlete lets their competitor win. Kinda why running isnt a good sport for the fans I guess.
It looks pretty clear that Mantz and Young were running together and were talking to each other while doing so. Finish begins at 7:10. At about 7:58 you can see Mantz appear to make a gesture, but it isn't clear whether it meant for the crowd or for Young. What is clear is that Young sped up with 50m to go and Mantz didn't.
So, yes...it appears Mantz let Young win. I don't think this is anywhere in the league of a boxer taking a dive. When that happens, one participant performs well below his potential, usually so that someone who has a bet on the outcome can profit. The "fix," as they say, is "in."
Here, both runners ran great races, it looks like the one who could have broken away didn't, and he even coasted to the finish, letting his opponent get the win. That's actually good sportsmanship. They both had guaranteed spots, so it didn't matter who won the race.
