that reminds me that flanagan said she was jumping into the women's 5000m just for the competition. where was she? rupp had a 5000m still to run and it was hot so it didn't make sense to run a fast race. but if you think about it, pushing the pace will always eliminate much of the field in american distance races and then you have only a few left to beat to qualify. when you factor in that one might have a world championship bye and be racing just for kicks (simpson) or others may lack the standard, you really don't have to beat too many once you reduce the race to 5 or 6 people.