Valencia 10k 2025 live thread

Surely Jakob would’ve run under 26:50 to win this. He was far ahead of Almgren at XC (or maybe Almgren isn’t as good at XC). Running 27:20ish in the middle of a half and stopping, after a 1500 season on lower mileage shows he can easily run 26:50

Maybe, but Almgren is the one who actually did it. Jakob can get the cred when he actually complete a race

Almgren crushed Kimeli today by 17s after losing to him by 1s at Euro Cross. Both were 17s and 18s back in Euro Cross of Jakob. Every race is different and Lobalu’s a big name to take down. It’s more likely this was just a better effort by Almgren and he’s better on the roads/track anyhow. Of course you’d pick Jakob to win this race but if they went out in 13:43, 13:10 is a quick close and very respectable. What’s the fastest could kick that down to while pushing from 800m out let’s say…13:05-13:07? The two Kenyans in 3-4 are solid road dudes if B-listers (Kinyanjui very young so promising, Oregon?).

Doesn’t Spain also have a massive doping culture?

Certainly should raise some red flags. Only thing to say for her is Japan-based athlete who’d been pretty impressive on their domestic circuit for some time, which is not the ideal place to run fast. We know the road shoes and pacers are an advantage for the women. Even with those caveats the second half of 2024 to this race are a large jump. Hopefully not an Emmaculate Anyango 2.0. She’s now a Tokyo contender so she will need at least 3 OOC tests to compete for the WC squad.

Which one of them is doing more mileage?

Other question is what is Narve Nordas’ deal? Seems to be regressing and then no sponsor listed on the results is odd. He pulled together a well-paced if uncompetitive (for a high placing) 3:30.4 in the Paris final to kinda salvage last year, but this is a guy running 100 mpw. He kicked down a 3:29.68 1500 in sub-53 nearly beating Jakob and well clear of Yared. Looks like a B/C teamer in these road races.

Lobun was a budding talent while u20. She was 4th in 2017 world U20 xc. In 2018 she won a lot of local Kenyan U20 races but at nationals both xc and track she came second to Beatrice Chebet that same year. 2018 Kenyan world U20 trials she again came second to Chebet in 5000m and was selected to the team and started the race at the world U20 2018 championships as the heavy favourite since she was the fastest junior athlete but during the actual race she fell down early and during the last lap I don't know what happened she was limping.

Never heard of her again till today. Where has she been its surprising I must agree

Almgren reaches 210 km.

I mean, his coach is the subject of a very high profile investigation. I can't imagine that is something you can just block out. He might need to move on, because this doesn't look like an issue that is going away any time soon

That ain't it. Take a look at the top 150 finishers in that race, not a lot of Spanish names there. The great advantage of European road races is that they can draw people from all over the continent because travel is fairly cheap if you're organised.

Maybe. We all assume Jakob will be great at the 10k and HM but we don't have much to go on other than inferences based on his training and 5k performance. He dominates Euro XC, which used to be 10k, but he always does it by sitting on the leader until the last km. Even with the caveat that he ran a hard 1500 the day before, his HM debut was a real letdown. I assumed he could run sub-60 without much effort

Interested in Kinyanjui, he was on the WU20 team way back in 2021 and is apparently still a teenager turning 20 this month. He briefly joined the SunBelx team in Japan but didn't have much success

He’s been racing really well, very impressive. I don’t know what his “niche” will be but it’s tempting to say he should stay on the roads unless he is particularly speedy. Between the old guard (Kipkorir Kimeli, Krop, Kwemoi, Kurgat, C Kemboi) and the up-and-comers (Alamisi, Kipkirui, Kimaiyo, Musau) being even a 12:55/26:50 type without a standout kick isn’t going to move the needle or make teams in all likelihood.

Very possibly his mind isn’t there I agree. His conduct around Filip landing the Euro XC spot and his teammate not was over-the-top. Didn’t age well when Filip ran well. Either way, I get that he likes Gjert or whatever but it doesn’t feel like a healthy situation to be in.

EDIT: didn’t appear to be wearing Hoka gear, don’t know if he’s a free agent but appears so

“Actually completes a race”…huh?

kimeli and krop aren't that old at all.

Surprised nobody has mentioned Charles Wheeler's run. Former Wisconsin runner, self coached now back in the UK.

Rory Leonard also seems to be proving Dave Smith wrong and improving a lot now back under a UK system. He mentioned he left OSU because he didn't think he was improving and they lambasted him after he said he wasn't coming back and that he wouldn't go much further.