Lausanne - big let-down in distance races for American fans

Bad Wigins wrote:

The world champs were a dumb idea from the start. Track is about going fast, not winning medals and not about whose country is best.

SCRAP the wc's and let's see some FAST races!

There were no world champs last year and we still saw a whole string of tactical 5000m races where no one wanted to push the pace.

Except for Stockholm where Rupp went for it and then paid for it.

Geb and Bekele didn't have issues setting world records in championship years and still winning Gold the same year.

sad d events wrote:

Wrong. It's not about the direction travelled, it's about how many time zones are travelled. Jet lag still happens when travelling westward.

Wrong. Jet lag in much worse traveling against the clock.

I'm not saying it's an excuse here, but anyone who flies a lot knows that against the clock is much worse.

Also disappointing is is the 800m. Mo aman bombs in the basement g three matchup and Rudy has zero fight. My boy amos takes it slightly outside of WL

time and hurts himself in doing it. If the Amos injury is serious and he has to miss WCs Souly should run the 800m at worlds, it would be too wide open to turn down the opportunity.

2500 feet elevation should not slow down the times.

I agree that it was tough on Emma and that she was in a no-win situation. She tweeted, and Jenny re-tweeted, Third place for both me and @trackjenny today in #LausanneDL. Tough conditions out there...bring on Monaco!! #TeamNB Jenny wasn't leading the race like Emma was in the wind. I don't know what Jenny's excuse was...jetlag? I'm sure she'll come back stronger than ever, but it's been a loooong time since I've seen Jenny get beat in the last 100 m.

No win situation wrote:

Too windy today for Emma to be effective leading. She was screwed with the rabbit situation. One went out hard, the 2nd rabbit (supposed to go 2k) made it about 800 meters. Coburn tucked behind the 2nd rabbit and was left leading after she failed, too far behind the first rabbit. Pushed hard and broke all but two, but with that wind she had no shot after pushing that long. She'll learn from this one.

bigtool05 wrote:

2500 feet elevation should not slow down the times.

I used to live and work in Lausanne and have trained and raced there (Lausanne 20k). I never noticed any altitude effects whatsoever to be honest.

It is a hilly place though, smashes your thighs a bit unless you stick to the lakeside.

bigtool05 wrote:

2500 feet elevation should not slow down the times.

It's closer to 2000ft, but it still does slow you down.

It was a hugely disappointing meet given the hype, but in addition to the great Taylor/Pichardo duel, both over 18 meters and Taylor 4th all-time now, Gatlin at 9.75, and Walcott in the Javelin over 90 meters, there was also English Gardner at 10.76!

jjjjjj wrote:

It was a hugely disappointing meet given the hype, but in addition to the great Taylor/Pichardo duel, both over 18 meters and Taylor 4th all-time now, Gatlin at 9.75, and Walcott in the Javelin over 90 meters, there was also English Gardner at 10.76!

Gardner had a huge tailwind.

jjjjjj wrote:

It was a hugely disappointing meet given the hype, but in addition to the great Taylor/Pichardo duel, both over 18 meters and Taylor 4th all-time now, Gatlin at 9.75, and Walcott in the Javelin over 90 meters, there was also English Gardner at 10.76!

It was windy!!! This has been mentioned a few times now. Temperature was near perfect but no one was running fast with the wind. A few sprints got the wind from the correct angle to help push them to fast times.

Grits Dummy wrote:

Last I checked Kenya is East of the US. There's no jet lag going from E to W.

You have obviously never traveled to Asia from the U.S. Do you know what lag is? Centro will experience jet lag a lot more than athletes coming from the East Coast because there is an extra 3 hour time difference.

That said, it did not seem to impact Jager at all. Centro has been traveling internationally for years to race and he should know what he needs to do to adjust, so he can't use that as an excuse.

I think he just has trouble adjusting to races with a really fast first lap.