Am I the only one who saw Centro getting smoked coming?

coach d wrote:

Whomever you really are, you were exposed as a total jerk yesterday when in the thread about Lagat you talked about "coaching" runners to run over and trip other competitors. No real coach ever says something like that.

Just another Oregon whiny brat, I take it.

Oregon? No. I understand how professional runners make their money though. I also understand - which you don't because you are not a real coach - that athletes making drastic adjustments to avoid contact with an athlete who fouls them is far more dangerous to the entire field (excluding the instigator of the foul) than just maintaining stride and running into the jerk who thinks he can make his own rules. So what you are telling me is as a guy who pretends to be a coach you advocate an athlete cheating by cutting other runners off but do not advocate a fouled runner protecting himself within the rules. Oh yeah, you have someone running in Boise; I believe that.

There is no excuse not to be in a good position in such a slow race

Wha? The danger comes from people falling. Your awful advice is to cause a fall rather than avoiding one. I sincerely hope that you're not really a coach.

Azaleas wrote:

Wha? The danger comes from people falling. Your awful advice is to cause a fall rather than avoiding one. I sincerely hope that you're not really a coach.

If you hold your path and take out a cheater, one person falls... the cheater. If you make a sudden adjustment in a tight pack, there is a good chance you and the runners you cut off in making the adjustment will go down. So I coach one cheater goes down versus two non cheaters. Apparently you advocate cheating. As a coach, I don't. I sincerely hope you don't coach.

Last summer Morgan Uceny lost a medal because Obiri tried unsuccessfully to dodge Jamal when she cut her off. If Obiri would have run Jamal over instead of pulling up, Uceny would have a medal right now and most likely Obiri, who would have had momentum on her side, would have stayed up too. So you are happy that two innocent runners went down. Great attitude.

HS coach2 wrote:

It amounted to a hard workout for him running 2:11 through 800 and then sprinting for awhile.

Centrowitz is 7 seconds slower than Rupp!

Face it, you are offering lousy advice to your runners. If they run into another runner intentionally, even if they are cutoff, they RISK falling themselves and still taking other runners with them.

THEN, your runner RISKS getting a DQ. You have no idea what a judge is going to see or not going to see on the track.

HS Coach 2 wrote:

If you hold your path and take out a cheater, one person falls... the cheater. If you make a sudden adjustment in a tight pack, there is a good chance you and the runners you cut off in making the adjustment will go down. So I coach one cheater goes down versus two non cheaters. Apparently you advocate cheating. As a coach, I don't. I sincerely hope you don't coach.

Last summer Morgan Uceny lost a medal because Obiri tried unsuccessfully to dodge Jamal when she cut her off. If Obiri would have run Jamal over instead of pulling up, Uceny would have a medal right now and most likely Obiri, who would have had momentum on her side, would have stayed up too. So you are happy that two innocent runners went down. Great attitude.

Yeah, because when you fall you just explode and can't possibly affect anyone around you.

Running in the Rain wrote:

I don't believe Centro really considers himself an Indoor racer and it is hard to beat some of those small compact African fellows on a 200 meter track with tight turns.

I believe he will be there when it counts. I think he will be going into the Olympics with a 3:30ish time under his belt and will be a serious medal contender.

Strange thing to say. I'm surprised that halfway trough this thread nobody is actually saying what the problem was, he just wasn't good enough to follow the speed on the last rounds. Not good enough shape. But who really cares? It's indoors and some people peak indoors, some have a small peak, some barely peak at all.

Outdoors is all that matters and this race says nothing, absolutely nothing about his chances this summer.

Fluffy wrote:

Koppenberg wrote:

Kirani James did about as well as Centro did.

Sometimes you win, sometimes you make the final and get your butt whupped. They'll both be back.

James got completely screwed over getting lane 1. I have almost no doubt that if got lane 6 he would have won.

You are new to track aren't you?

'Outdoors is all that matters and this race says nothing, absolutely nothing about his chances this summer.'

Very true, I critisised his tactics but maybe he is not 100% ready for track and in more of a build up phase. I still expect him to do well in London. He has all the qualities required to do so

Well said coach.

As to comment to some of the other posters:

Bump and run , elbows, touches , pushes are all a part of international competition. My assumption is that many of the young runners here have not experienced it. Listen next time Lagat gets asked about elbows etc. , you will hear from him as well as others it's a part of racing at this level and more so at indoor completions.

I thought centro's tactics were pretty good. He ran in lane 1 a lot in early in the race while others were jostling or running wide. He made a decisive move to the front with 600 to go. Unluckily for Centro, the Turk made an early move with 500 to go. The leaders ran something like 26.5 from 500 to 300 to go. Centro probably ran 28 or 27 high. He was gapped a little but running in lane 1 in 4th place, having saved a little energy by not going completely with the surge.

He just needed to close the gap over the next 100 and then kick hard. Unfortunately, his kick wasn't there today. No big deal. I didn't expect him to be at maximum sharpness yet.

He proved once again that he belongs there, with the best in the world.

centro needs to watch lagat. they both have great kicks, but lagat always sets himself up perfectly for the break, when it comes, by jumping out into 2nd or 3rd place at the very beginning of every race and then setting up to the outside of lane one to avoid getting boxed when the pace is picking up near the end. So, lagat is always in perfect position to kick at the end. centro, by contrast, has too often let himself get way back with less than 1/2 M to go. in this case, he forced himself to move all the way from last into contention, wasted a lot of his energy in doing that and then could not hang with the leaders. he himself said that had he been able to stay closer to the leaders at world's outdoor before the bell lap, he might have been able to get the gold. In addition, he did not show many signs, other than that sub 3:54 early on, that he was near 100 percent fitness this indoor campaign. Outdoor's when it really matters and if healthy he should get there. He is a real gamer and will figure out the tactics, which are simple in theory but require great fitness and willpower to execute.