What happened to Jaeger during final?

You dropped a bomb on me wrote:

Thought he looked great. Very strong and powerful. Positioned perfectly throughout the race. He should have gone with 2 laps to go, and I think he'd have placed higher. Trying to outkick guys over the last lap is not going to work for him outside of The States. Kemboi dropped a 56/57 sec last lap bomb on everyone.

That likewise would have failed, as the last km was 2:34 plus the faster last lap.

Jager's best chance was to run evenly hard from the start, the same as he ran in his best performance.

Rojo--

Just because the Kenyans "could" be saying that as well does not mean that American fans are wrong to question aspects of Jager's fitness, execution, and training.

That logic just doesn't hold. Yes, Birech could have done better, but in what world is that mean we ought simply to give Jager a pass, throw our hands up, and not wonder what could have been done differently or better?

The fact of the matter is that Jager is with a coach who is very good--but only at coaching his athletes to be strong. When it comes to coaching finishing kicks, to coaching racing--Shumacher has proven himself lacking. Infeld is the exception to this rule. Jager, today, was the confirmation of it.

Jaegerfanboy wrote:

What happened to Jaeger during final?

What happened? Hmmm....good question. I am going to go with:

He got his butt kicked by 4 Kenyans on the last lap. But that's just a guess.

Jager has had a very frustrating season. Gets nipped out of the top 3 at prefontaine, falls over last hurdle in paris when he could've won, and now 6th and not even top american at world championships in the year that he was projected to medal. Disappointing yet he still had 2 good dl races and a solid WC race.

That when schumachers athletes are expected to do well in championships they end up under achieving a bit. They do well with little or no expectations. Enfeld today was like teg from a few years ago. They did very well but were not burdoned by high expectations.

There were high expectations for Jager this time around and he seemed flat throughout the meet (prelims included). He did well but spent the last weeks evolving to be a serious medal contender. Sure he just missed by a small margin but in championship races those small margins are what makes the difference.

The point is jager has become in the mix of the very best. He needs to take another step. The very best still achieve even when they arent feeling great. They get it done when it is expected (not by accident or fluke). Sleazazar more often gets this to happen with is athletes. Schumacher, not much.

Rupp didnt have any of the momentum that jager has had this year and yet he finished in the same place at the seasons championship.

Rojo,

You are rationalizing. You are using the "he was going for a medal" to gloss over that Jager looked kind of stale.

I said after Monaco that I feared he peaked too soon. I mean, seriously, he is running within view of the World Record a month before WC, and we were supposed to believe he was going to sustain that level for a month and be even better? That notion was a little too good be true.

"The fact of the matter is that Jager is with a coach who is very good--but only at coaching his athletes to be strong. When it comes to coaching finishing kicks, to coaching racing--Shumacher has proven himself lacking. Infeld is the exception to this rule. Jager, today, was the confirmation of it."

- apparently, you didn't see Ryan Hill crush the 5000m in Eugene? Or is that just another picky/choosy "exception" to YOUR rule?

We'll find out in Zurich if Jager peaked too soon or just had a bad World Championships. I suspect it was the former more than the latter for Jager.