How in the world did Kiplimo outkick Jakob in a 3k around the time he ran 3:28, yet he couldn't win a gold medal in the 5k or 10k despite his absurd half marathon strength?
That's what I wad wondering myself after reading the article. I'm like, "Ok, if he's this good on the roads, why didn't he win a gold on the track."
But he is this good on the roads (at least up to 13.1) and I think the same largely could be said of Kipchoge. I mean yes Kipchoge won a track gold - but only one and it was when he was quite young.
A couple things: Kiplimo is laughably bad tactically in crowded races on the track. He is always running extra distance and making ineffective moves. Grant Fisher completely outfoxed him last year in Paris.
When it’s straightforward like in the DL or at 2022 Comm Games he can look close to unstoppable despite an average kick. Look at that years Comm Games races where he crushes Ebenyo in the 10K and Krop/Kimeli in the 5K. I thought he’d never lose after watching those, but then you realize sitting and kicking vs 2-deep fields is way easier than vs fields with 10-12 fit guys.
Cross Country similarly benefits him as while there are tactics, breaking away early is more viable and the field winnows down more easily.
This post was edited 34 seconds after it was posted.
Am I the only one who had no idea Victor Kiplangat, Jacob Kiplimo, and Oscar Chelimo were related? Three brothers with four world championship medals and three commonwealth medals within three years (2021-2023). It wouldn't be crazy to say they are more genetically talented than the Bekele or Ingebrigtsen brothers.
Kiplimo and his brothers were so talented that Italian coach Giuseppe Giambrone who spotted them in Uganda thought about adopting all 4 brothers.
He didn't adopt them but Kiplimo and his two older brothers did move Italy to train with Giuseppe Giambrone and Kiplimo's talent quickly emerged from the pack (and please realize one of his older brother's won 2024 worlds in the marathon and has run 2:05).
George Mallet wrote:
A staple for the Italian is a one-hour progressive run, over a testing course which film fans will recognise from the original Gladiator movie. It features smooth rises and gentle falls on compacted trails and light tarmac, flanked by uninterrupted fields of wheat and olive trees. With temperatures of at least 20 degrees centigrade all year round – and more like 28 in the summer – nothing about the setting or the run itself is easy. Nevertheless, six months into his stay in April 2016, Kiplimo was making increasingly light work of it. Surrounded by athletes many years his senior, he began to drive the pace. The third of the brothers eased away. With a four per cent gradient and at the end of the hour-long run, Kiplimo ran 3:01 for each of the final two kilometres. Adjusting for the hill, conservative estimates would have that equivalent to a flat 2:45 km, some would even put it closer to 2:40. As was customary right after he finished, Giambrone took Kiplimo’s lactate measurement. The reading was 1.9 mmol/l. That figure will mean nothing to most people but, in simple terms, it suggested Kilplimo could clear out lactate at that pace quicker than it built up, and that he would be likely to sustain the effort for an hour. At that pace, provided the conditions were flat, he would have covered more than a half marathon during that time – at the age of 15 and without the help of carbon shoes.
Incredible.
And if you think Kiplimo's age is a lie, the article states Giambrone had xrays done of his bones.
To those who question some of the supposed ages of athletes coming out of East Africa, Giambrone says he got doctors to confirm Kiplimo’s (he is now 24) through x-rays that can determine bone age, and the photos at the time show him as nothing but a baby-faced assassin.
As Jonathan Gault told me tongiht, only a MASSIVE talent could run 27:26 as a 15-year old but Kiplimo has since proven himself to be exactly that.
You know what, if I have a son I'm going to name him Jackob. Between Ingebrigtsen and Kiplimo (and I guess Gyllenhaal if he's artsy), it seems like the least I can do to give him a fighting chance.
Kiplimo and his brothers were so talented that Italian coach Giuseppe Giambrone who spotted them in Uganda thought about adopting all 4 brothers.
He didn't adopt them but Kiplimo and his two older brothers did move Italy to train with Giuseppe Giambrone and Kiplimo's talent quickly emerged from the pack (and please realize one of his older brother's won 2024 worlds in the marathon and has run 2:05).
Incredible.
And if you think Kiplimo's age is a lie, the article states Giambrone had xrays done of his bones.
To those who question some of the supposed ages of athletes coming out of East Africa, Giambrone says he got doctors to confirm Kiplimo’s (he is now 24) through x-rays that can determine bone age, and the photos at the time show him as nothing but a baby-faced assassin.
As Jonathan Gault told me tongiht, only a MASSIVE talent could run 27:26 as a 15-year old but Kiplimo has since proven himself to be exactly that.
How does Kiplimo lose every Global 10000m final he is in? He has no kick.
could it be that he is the biggest responder to the af3?
As Jonathan Gault told me tongiht, only a MASSIVE talent could run 27:26 as a 15-year old but Kiplimo has since proven himself to be exactly that.
His 13:19 5,000m on the track as a 15-year-old is even better. That's more than two seconds faster than Prefontaine ever ran -- and Kiplimo wasn't even old enough to drive.