TWO women under 30 minutes in the Olympic 10000m final

Vancomycin wrote:

I love LRC because 11 year old threads are just reappear. This is a good question! Did anyone see Ayana coming on that strong in 2016? Her 10k is drilled into my brain. I remember watching it with no sound, I kept thinking I was doing math wrong because I couldn't believe sub 29:20 pace.

I didn't see it until 2015. But once she toyed with Dibaba a couple of times late that season I don't see how 2016 was a surprise at all. At the end of 2015 I thought the two female athletes most likely to dominate in Rio were Ledecky and Ayana. That's because the female distance races have been soft territory for years. The sporting world has accepted low standards in those events.

The only surprise was that Ayana didn't win the Olympic 5000 also. I'll always believe that was pure overconfidence more than anything else. She ran the qualifier too hard then pushed the midsection of the race a few seconds per lap too fast.

....

The only thing I want to emphasize is if Ayana is fit, then no lady will beat her in the 10000m before Olympics 2020. Only hope they have is if Ayana is 85% or less towing the line I don't care if they can close the last 400m in 56 secs.

In Recovery

Yes Emily Sisson only 27 years old has a great chance of running sub 30 min track 10000m. She may never hold the AR 5000m but she can run sub 14:50 and definitely sub 30 mins if she targets those goals and go at it with everything, leaving nothing on the track.