We loved this article by LRC friend Sean Ingle. We have changed the title of the thread. It was initially entitled, “The Guardian put out a new article/interview with Jakob 1/23/26”
There are probably 9-10 guys in the world right now who could beat him in any championship 1500m race. His “dominance” in the 5k is also on borrowed time when these 1500 guys start moving up the distance
- I agree with him, he should have won, he was 5% stronger than the others but thought he was 10% stronger and made mistakes (pacing, positioning)
- If he's reliving the past, that's not a great optic for the future. The achilles injury has been lingering for a while now, and it's going to limit his training (mileage, speed, overall load). I can see him do well on a couple isolated 1500m, but not in a championship with rounds.
- The 1500m tactics have evolved a bit since Paris, with a few new contenders. Better to focus on them, and a new strategy, rather than trying to figure out a way to win Paris OG...
Have to agree with Jakob here, he’s just been extremely unlucky in global championships so far. Can’t wait for him to come back and destroy his competition at the European Championships and hopefully the Ultimate WC but WRs should be the #1 priority.
Lucky or unlucky?
Lucky that Tim ran a stupid final 5 years ago, and lucky that Katir didn't catch him at the very end 3 years ago.
- I agree with him, he should have won, he was 5% stronger than the others but thought he was 10% stronger and made mistakes (pacing, positioning)
- If he's reliving the past, that's not a great optic for the future. The achilles injury has been lingering for a while now, and it's going to limit his training (mileage, speed, overall load). I can see him do well on a couple isolated 1500m, but not in a championship with rounds.
- The 1500m tactics have evolved a bit since Paris, with a few new contenders. Better to focus on them, and a new strategy, rather than trying to figure out a way to win Paris OG...
- I agree with him, he should have won, he was 5% stronger than the others but thought he was 10% stronger and made mistakes (pacing, positioning)
- If he's reliving the past, that's not a great optic for the future. The achilles injury has been lingering for a while now, and it's going to limit his training (mileage, speed, overall load). I can see him do well on a couple isolated 1500m, but not in a championship with rounds.
- The 1500m tactics have evolved a bit since Paris, with a few new contenders. Better to focus on them, and a new strategy, rather than trying to figure out a way to win Paris OG...
Did the 1500m tactics evolve, or regress?
Evolved as in changed. Slower times (still fast, but ~1 second slower), a bit more tactical.
Interesting that the article mentions that he "tore" his achilles in 2025. I wonder if that was an actual diagnosis or an assumption by the author. It certainly wasn't a full tear, but maybe a partial tear? In any event, Jakob says his achilles is very good now.
Definitely wasn’t a tear, he wouldn’t be running at all currently if that was the case.
Nope - As someone who has had a small micro tear in the Achilles this is very possible.
My recovery time was around a week and then about another 2 weeks where I could train a small bit but was forced to run with a strange gait in order to protect the achilles as still couldn't take full power.
So at his level could see this taking him out for a month as had proper compensation problems and could make it work on small mileage weeks compared to what he must be used to
It's quite rare as normally it is a full tear or a form of tendonitis. But it does happen