ED EYESTONE: Batty would have been top 5

It seems to me that Eyestone thinks that Batty jogged the first half and just couldn't make up enough ground on the leaders. If he had shown a decent negative split, this could be true. However, as stated above, he ran SLOWER the second 5k, indicating he was spent by the end.

Shaheen Spleentz wrote:

You are in the wrong business. Why aren't you coaching. You obviously know the athlete and team better than the coach. Not only that, you know running better than a world class athlete with more experience than you.

Bravo.

Since Solinsky has a faster PR, I believe him when he says someone pushed him off the track in that 5000 meter race.

Do you really have nothing better to do than pull a quote out of context? You have no idea what his connotation was.

categorically wrote:

It does look like Batty held back in the first 2k. Rather than running right up at the front he was in 31st.

He finished 14th. His last 5k and last 2k were both 15th best in the field.

If he had gone out near the lead at 2k (~5 seconds faster) and run the rest of the race the same he would have only gained 2 places. He also could have gone out and lost places after 5k rather than holding his place.

By running the first 2k a fraction slower he gave up a chance at the top 5 and also limited the risk of blowing up and hurting the team.

So yeah, I'd say he ran a smart team race.

I don't know how the quote I pulled out is somehow different than the whole post above.

From the splits of Batty and all the runners around him, it doesn't look like he held back at all. I run virtually all my races with negative splits and know if you can't do that, then you ran the first half harder than you should have, not easier as "catagorically" suggests.

There is nothing wrong with Eyestone putting a positive spin on the race and it would have hurt their team if Batty tried to go with the top 5 early but the facts are pretty clear he finished right where he was capable of.

Batty is a miler. When the overall pace is stiff he will be relegated while the 10K guys shine. In a tactical race like the women's he would have done well, as did Reid and Hasay, also milers.