I don't understand Fisher's insistance that he has a kick. He really doesn't. He would have had a free medal if he pushed from 1k out
I'm not sure he would have had a free medal. There are plenty in that field that can run a pretty good 1000 off that pace.
I'm sure he believes he has a kick based on the Olympics.
The hard thing about racing is that you're making decisions in real time and sometimes in a split second. Then you have to factor in every other competitor doing the exact same thing. The best plans mean nothing so much of the time.
The decisions made during the race can look like brilliance or stupidity, but only after you cross the line. That's what makes racing so much more interesting to me than the time-trialing we see in so many other meets and races.
This is why we run the races, right? Sometimes, you just don't have it on the day.
However, how many of us just entirely discounted Gressier's DL win like it was lightning in a bottle? We should probably take a bit more notice when an unfancied athlete takes a big step like that. Maybe it means we should take a bit more notice of Isaac Kimeli for the 5000
I don't understand Fisher's insistance that he has a kick. He really doesn't. He would have had a free medal if he pushed from 1k out
I'm not sure he would have had a free medal. There are plenty in that field that can run a pretty good 1000 off that pace.
I'm sure he believes he has a kick based on the Olympics.
The hard thing about racing is that you're making decisions in real time and sometimes in a split second. Then you have to factor in every other competitor doing the exact same thing. The best plans mean nothing so much of the time.
The decisions made during the race can look like brilliance or stupidity, but only after you cross the line. That's what makes racing so much more interesting to me than the time-trialing we see in so many other meets and races.
Spot on. It's super easy to criticize tactics, especially when we get tons of camera angles for the entire race and a commentator, but an athlete can make all the right tactical choices based on what they know and still lose. Great tactics will look bad if you come 4th, and bad tactics will look good if you still medal. To me, Fisher fell off so hard in the final 100 that I'm not convinced he would've medaled pushing from far out anyway. Maybe he felt great and just didn't have the speed (hopefully he pushes hard in the 5k if that's the case), I'm interested to see his interview.
Amen he thinks he has a kick based on the Olympics, but let's not forget what he did after, which was outkick the 1500m gold medalist in a 3k, and run a 3:48 mile at Pre. I'd think I had a great kick after that too. He got outkicked by Nico at nationals, but as Nico just showed in his 5th place finish (and showed in his 12:45 DL win), he has a great kick.
I will say that 4 years ago, he came 5th in his breakout race, so I'm sure he's not very happy to be so far back after setting 2 world records indoors.
PS. It wouldn't be a tv broadcast if I didn't complain about it.
1) NBC totally butchered the camera angle. They zoomed in on the two Americans as they were rounding the final turn right . But we had no idea the other guys were pulling away because of this. NBC really needs to stop zooming in.
2) When it ended, Paul Swangard said the following: "It is the first European medal in this event since Mo Farah in 1987."
What?
[RE 10K Coverage]....Even MUCH WORSE, they went to several long commercials then made us wait painfully for approximately 4 more minutes while they covered the women's LJ instead of returning to the 10K! It was a painful, 8 minute wait. Even the split screen did not show the timer. Awful coverage in today's age of tech.
I still remember Grant Fisher jogging the 3k race for second at GST and not going for the win against Gebrehewit because he already has the 100k secured. An athlete with that type of cowardly mentality and attitude to racing doesn’t deserve to win anything championship medals. Congrats to Gressier, Kejelcha and Algrem
Exactly. Real champions don't opt out of a potential win.
Jimmy Gressier a remporté le 10 000 m des Mondiaux de Tokyo (Japon), ce dimanche, en dominant au sprint une course tactique, qui s'est nettement accélérée dans sa deuxième partie.
Monster Jimmy Gressier. His life will never be the same.
Coming from a poor background in the industrial port City of Boulogne sur Mer in the North West of France his life from now on will be a lot easier for him and his family and his close friends because he's got a lot of friends that he takes care of. He's salt of the earth working class hero a bit like Alf Tupper the former British (fictional) legend who ate fish and chips every Friday night.
Gressier: He played soccer up to the age of 17 and didn't really get into athletics until he was around 18 or 19 years old. Late bloomer.
Monster Jimmy Gressier. His life will never be the same.
Coming from a poor background in the industrial port City of Boulogne sur Mer in the North West of France his life from now on will be a lot easier for him and his family and his close friends because he's got a lot of friends that he takes care of. He's salt of the earth working class hero a bit like Alf Tupper the former British (fictional) legend who ate fish and chips every Friday night.
Gressier: He played soccer up to the age of 17 and didn't really get into athletics until he was around 18 or 19 years old. Late bloomer.
Yes, I'm happy for his win , a guy coming from simple background and quite late started running. Also happy for my countryman Almgren to grab his very first medal in big championchip after a long career with some severe injuries before at now age 29. 🇨🇵🇸🇪 Vive la France, leve Sverige!
2) When it ended, Paul Swangard said the following: "It is the first European medal in this event since Mo Farah in 1987."
What?
Yes, this one was the head scratcher to end all head scratchers. Even a casual fan would catch himself reading that out and realize it was wrong. I’m assuming someone handed him that stat and he just read it, anyway, since it was just so blatantly incorrect. I have a friend who does local sports commentary and it’s way harder than it looks, you’re constantly being fed info on paper or in your earpiece while trying to make your endless talking sound natural, so some sympathy there. But wow, that stat was blatantly wrong lol.
It was so funny seeing Gressier's face he looked distraught from how shocked he was lol
It wasn't gold, but I'm glad to see Kejelcha pick up another medal -- his first in 6 years. For a guy that simultaneously held the indoor mile and half marathon world records, and is an absolute monster on the DL circuit, he doesn't have much championship hardware. Really hope he gets an outdoor gold in his career (and with Jakob not in his best shape, this might be his best shot).
Also Nico Young 5th is great. I know we (at least I) wanted him to win, but for his first year as a pro, and his first year as a real contender 5th is great (and is the best a US guy has ever placed at WCs besides Fisher's 4th, and Rupp finished 4th or 5th once iirc).
Really happy Almgren nabbed a medal too, I'm not a huge fan of him (probably only because I'm not European), but I see him race a good bit anyway, and he ran a great race.
Tough for Fisher, I guess he thought that 3:48 mile counted for more in a kick than it did. Maybe he should've made it a mile race at the end, but he just got absolutely cooked in the last 100m, so I'm not sure a fast last 1k would've benefitted him regardless. No way to know, but I'd like to see him push it from a few laps out anyway.
Unbelievable kick by Gressier- good on him. Unfortunately, now we have to see the overblown and contrived celebration that Gressier does for the cameras.