US Championships Mens 800m

After Lagat Robinson is the highest ranked US distance runner by the IAAF. Currently he is ranked 7th in the world. Do you expect Symmonds to consistently beat a guy ranked in the international top ten in the 800metere? Robinson's coach, the great Johnny Gray, has stated that his pupil may get his US record in the 800. Symmonds has had an excellent year, but lets not forget that how good Robinson is. According the IAAF he is the second best US distance runner behind Lagat.

Symmonds finished exactly where most people predicted. Hopefully the US will have at least two 800 meters runner in the finals at Japan. Who says it is our weakest distance event

thank you for providing some facts to emphasize my point. KD was the favorite in that race and the style of the coverage (focusing so much on symmonds) really surprised me. (and i only watched online so i didn't see much before or after the race - just the race itself).

I think Symmonds is much more interesting at this point. The coverage focused on him not in spite of his minimal top flight experience but BECAUSE of it. KD blowing the doors off of an 800 field is nothing new but Symmonds is the rising star and that makes for better drama.

while it wasnt amazing and he didnt quite make the team...one guy who had a solid race after a few terrible years is jonathon johnson

im sure its not what he wanted but worth mentioning and hopefully hell keep climbing back

I'm glad Symmonds got beat like this today...now he has his wake up call that you can't be that far back against 1:44 guys and win..he needs better tactics..and he needs to be in striking distance with 200M to go to use his closing speed. If he runs like this in Osaka, he will not even medal. Hopefully he learns from this because he CAN win gold in Osaka.

Does Duane Solomon get to go to Osaka?

Duane is gonna rock in Osaka! He gets to go with a B standard because the first two guys already have an A standard. Watch out for this kid cause he's gonna be a threat, especially as he developes more.

i haven't written on here for years but things look about the same. kd is still not getting the respect he deserves. he did NOT blow off symmonds. he just got done running 1:44 and change wire to wire in the lead which takes a lot more energy than sitting back. symmonds is a legit runner and an upcoming star. kd is still the king ... and will be for a few more years. props to kd and symmonds who both ran their race and the better guy won. kd will likely get the american record. i don't think symmonds has that potential.

i know wrote:

i haven't written on here for years but things look about the same. kd is still not getting the respect he deserves. he did NOT blow off symmonds. he just got done running 1:44 and change wire to wire in the lead which takes a lot more energy than sitting back.

I'm confused. Are you saying that he didn't blow of Symmonds because he was just sooooo tired after running a wire-to-wire 1:44? I guess you didn't watch the NBC coverage. He'll get my respect when he runs fast times AND shows respect for his competitors, two things that Symmonds does.

tqx wrote:

I'm confused. Are you saying that he didn't blow of Symmonds because he was just sooooo tired after running a wire-to-wire 1:44? I guess you didn't watch the NBC coverage. He'll get my respect when he runs fast times AND shows respect for his competitors, two things that Symmonds does.

give me a break. KD clearly was pissed off that he lost to an up and coming american in his last race and wanted this victory a little more than usual. he won in convincing fashion and he wanted to strut for a minute in celebration. symmonds came over right away and KD wasn't ready for it. you're going to use that as the basis for not liking a guy?

say you like symmonds more because he went to a DIII school, or because he doesn't have the classic build for a runner, or because he's white, i don't really care why you want to root for him, but you don't need to put down KD and say you won't give him your respect in order to be a symmonds fan.

KD's a good guy, his coach is a good guy, and KD's been running at a very high level for quite some time now. he's certainly earned the respect of any fan of US track that's been paying attention.

what has been up w/ j johnson? still not 144 but better than the ugly races hes been running

kaitainen wrote:

give me a break. KD clearly was pissed off that he lost to an up and coming american in his last race and wanted this victory a little more than usual. he won in convincing fashion and he wanted to strut for a minute in celebration. symmonds came over right away and KD wasn't ready for it. you're going to use that as the basis for not liking a guy?

Yes. He had a 1 minute and 44 second strut. That was plenty.

Symmonds maybe a more interesting story coming from D3, but Robinson is plainly faster and is the top 800 meter runner in all of North America.

I am starting to believe Robinson maybe as good as Krummenacker was, though I don't think Robinson would ever run a 3:31 1500.

There were no surprises in the 800 finals. The Steeplechase was another story all together. Wow, guys with B standard times beating Lincoln (US record holder)!!

A guy from Canada may be a tad better

pdxrunr wrote:

I'm glad Symmonds got beat like this today...now he has his wake up call that you can't be that far back against 1:44 guys and win...

Really? Hmm. That's funny, because that's exactly how he won at Pre.

You could be right.

Gary Reed does have a bit more raw speed than either Symmonds or Robinson. He runs mid 21s in the 200 and mid 46s in the 400 and used to be a sprinter a couple years back.

I think he'll continue improving his times in the coming years (he's a consistent 1:44 low - 1:43 high guy already)

as his aerobic base continues to build.

Robinson is Krummenackers heir.

Symmonds ran into the classic "come-from-behind" kicker's problem.

That strategy only works if the pack says close to the leader. If the leader gaps the pack then the kicker is too far back to catch him at the end.

I'm sure Robinson's value is high on the European circuit. With his take the lead, run from the front and make the pace quick, style meets don't have to spend as much on rabits.

Poor coaching plain and simple , never under estimate the field. Nick still has much to learn in the art of high level racing.