I'm expecting Barega to no longer be a 10,000 gold medal contender this September in Tokyo.
A medal contender? Sure, like Hassan in Paris.
But marathon training will dull his final lap kick.
Presuming, of course, Selemon even returns to the track.
Rojo, to paraphrase your favorite aphorism, "this is good news for Grant Fisher."
Frankly, with Cheptegei now a marathoner, Barega & Kiplimo soon-to-be marathoners, Kejelcha running half-marathons & other road races, and Aregawi running his first half-marathon next month, looking more-and-more like track-focused Grant will be the Tokyo WC pre-race 10,000 favorite.
I’d be worried he won’t even make that team. Mehary is coming and the Aregawi/Kejelcha have been better of late.
I missed that he ran valencia half. How is this course? Really hoping he can break the course record
I’m not familiar with the course, but based on winning times I’m assuming it’s pretty fast.
2020 - Mekuant Ayenew 2:04:46
2022 - Asrar Abderehman 2:04:43
2023 - Gadisa Shumie 2:04:59
2024 - Deresa Geleta 2:03:27
Those are (still) PRs for Shumie and Ayenew, I had trouble even finding Abderehman’s WA page, and it was a 2:24 PR for Geleta who later ran 2:02:38 in Valencia.
If “random” B-list Ethiopians can come in and run 2:04 every year, I would expect a 12:43/57:50/10k Olympic champion to be able to match that if he has a reasonably good debut.
was there any indication from Kipchoge's track results that he would turn out to be the marathon GOAT?
No, but he was the second best 5k runner of the 2000s decade IMO, which is “pretty good.”
I was kinda thinking about that in response to douglas burke’s assumption that since Barega and Fisher have similar track PRs, they have the same marathon potential: a number of guys will wind up with track PRs similar to Kipchoge (7:27 - 12:46 - 26:49) and not many of them will run 2:01:09 and dominate the marathon for years.
was there any indication from Kipchoge's track results that he would turn out to be the marathon GOAT?
No, but he was the second best 5k runner of the 2000s decade IMO, which is “pretty good.”
I was kinda thinking about that in response to douglas burke’s assumption that since Barega and Fisher have similar track PRs, they have the same marathon potential: a number of guys will wind up with track PRs similar to Kipchoge (7:27 - 12:46 - 26:49) and not many of them will run 2:01:09 and dominate the marathon for years.
His track career certainly gets a bit underrated - 12:46 guy with good closing speed was nothing to sniff at back then. I do wonder why he never gave the 10,000 any serious tries in his prime, but I guess he didn't want to double and thought his 5000 was a better chance at beating Bekele.
He didn't look as relaxed as I'd expect this morning so I say 2:05 and probably 4th or 5th place. Weather is going to be ideal for marathon running and the course is a Valencia clone.