She still hasn't decided between 1,500 and 5,000 in Doha.
I strongly recommend her and her coach to go for the 5k. She is a pure slow-twitch runner with no speed at all. She is simply not competitive in the last 200m, no matter what distance. The only exception would be a very fast race where she is able to drop runners like Muir and Houlihan before the last 200m.
Damn that is impressive. How good can this girl be when she moves to the marathon. I hope they don't hold her back on the track until she gets too old to really contend for a gold medal at the top level.
If KK can run 14:26... What can Hassan run?
Montesquieu wrote:
Salazar is a bit long in the tooth and has been having Julian handle more and more of the coaching. Perhaps Julian should be getting more credit as being a world class coach than he does. Of course, the athletes that come to him are already tremendous runners, but great success is still hard to come by.
Julian is coaching world class athletes. Whether or not he's a world class coach doesn't really matter. They are obviously doing a great job and if the athletes are happy and he's happy that's awesome.
You never know when the best run of your life will happen, and when it does you often think a better one is right around the corner. Even if she is a front runner, I still think she's in shape to run about 10-15 seconds faster in the right race or with the right rabbits.
I'm not trying to rain on her parade, but man I really wish she didn't have to be so thin. I'm not saying it's unhealthy for her, maybe that's truly just how she is, but there are going to be so many more girls now that are watching her and thinking "I need to lose weight."
LateRunnerPhil wrote:
She still hasn't decided between 1,500 and 5,000 in Doha.
I strongly recommend her and her coach to go for the 5k.
I agree. For me it was already quite clear after the race in Stanford that she was among the top 3-5 5k runners this season.
She is a pure slow-twitch runner with no speed at all. She is simply not competitive in the last 200m, no matter what distance.
This is not quite true. She beat the likes of Dibaba and Gidey in Stanford (and Obiri already two years ago in Birmingham) on the last 200m of a 3k. And she did improve her finishing speed a little bit since she's with NOP.
But the 1500m in London DL showed that sub60 in a ~4:00 race is nothing special (the first 6 ran sub 60 last laps in that race) and will not even be enough against Debues-Stafford, not to speak of Muir or Houlihan.
Koko could probably run 3:55-56 in an even-paced race, but a championship race will be more like the race in London and in such situations she is fairly helpless because she lacks that 58 last lap.
WinnytheBish wrote:
If KK can run 14:26... What can Hassan run?
Only a few seconds faster. When you input their recent 3K pbs it says that this 5K KoKo ran is actually a slightly lesser performance on purely time merits. Although she's a front runner there's no way she'd have run slower today if she had someone in front of her pushing like she did during the 3K.
Dude 15 seconds faster means she's in world record shape. She's awesome but she's absolutely not there yet. Maybe 5-6 seconds. Not 10-15.
Hassan just did run 14:22, why should we ask what she could run?
8:20 is still slightly better than 14:26 and this was solo and with a slight negative split, so I'd think that Koko could run 14:20-22, depending on how evenly paced the race was. TBH, I am not sure if she could have kept up with the last 1000m in 2:41 in the London 5000m race (Hassan couldn't...)
That's how competitive 5000m is, and how Dibaba ( both sisters) ,Defar, as well as Ayana and Obiri put up some crazy, crazy times
top ten times : all by them!
So no she is not even close to being in WR shape at 5000m or 1500m ( 3:50? Out of reach for a long a s s time)
To run 14:11, the run will have to be an out of this mind run, and with help from NIKE and their cheater spikes.
And Tirunesh cranked up in the last half of the race. She could have run faster.
I think the mistake some people make is that thinking in a race like London where Hassan couldn't hold on that perhaps she could have shaved a second here and there in a couple laps earlier and that'd make her overall time better. That's not how it works. The shape you're in right now in a race doesn't mean you can run an equivalent time at a different distance a couple weeks later even if the race situation turns out perfectly for you.
Jo72 wrote:
Hassan just did run 14:22, why should we ask what she could run?
8:20 is still slightly better than 14:26 and this was solo and with a slight negative split, so I'd think that Koko could run 14:20-22, depending on how evenly paced the race was. TBH, I am not sure if she could have kept up with the last 1000m in 2:41 in the London 5000m race (Hassan couldn't...)
That's because Hassan paced and made that race. They were all running scared in the second half of that race due to the Semenya factor. Hassan intentionally pushed it hard, but a little bit too hard, and crashed. Kipyegon went with, but slightly stayed off and preserve something for the stretch.
Jo72 wrote:
LateRunnerPhil wrote:
She still hasn't decided between 1,500 and 5,000 in Doha.
I strongly recommend her and her coach to go for the 5k.
I agree. For me it was already quite clear after the race in Stanford that she was among the top 3-5 5k runners this season.
She is a pure slow-twitch runner with no speed at all. She is simply not competitive in the last 200m, no matter what distance.
This is not quite true. She beat the likes of Dibaba and Gidey in Stanford (and Obiri already two years ago in Birmingham) on the last 200m of a 3k. And she did improve her finishing speed a little bit since she's with NOP.
But the 1500m in London DL showed that sub60 in a ~4:00 race is nothing special (the first 6 ran sub 60 last laps in that race) and will not even be enough against Debues-Stafford, not to speak of Muir or Houlihan.
Koko could probably run 3:55-56 in an even-paced race, but a championship race will be more like the race in London and in such situations she is fairly helpless because she lacks that 58 last lap.
I agree with this. She would have to add a little bit more strength and tone to her body, and establish a great kick. She is more in the Ayana fold, where she can push fast for the majority of the race, but not kick in the last 1 or 2 laps. Her only chance would be to go out strong and hold, putting pressure on everyone else who don't want to run fast early. If the she is still with the pack, down the stretch, no way will she medal.
qs wrote:
The only non-East African to run faster was Russian Liliya Shobukhova 14:23.75.
reer wrote:
so KK is the fastest non-East African.
No, she's the second fastest. Learn to read.
Well she has run 1:59 which is roughly the same as Houlighan's. Houlighan's kick loses much of its magic at 3:57 or faster pace. Muir showed that. I think KoKo will eventually surpass Hassan's PRs and she is still young. Salazar was able to develop Rupp's kick and in time KoKo's will be tough
Another completely unknown person out of nowhere absolutely annihilates a record. Totally not fishy in any sense...
09sarose wrote:
Another completely unknown person out of nowhere absolutely annihilates a record. Totally not fishy in any sense...
I guess you haven't been keeping up with current events.
14:26? Wow, that puts her solidly into the very top of the sport right now. Makes her a real threat to any field.
For "current"= since Euro indoors 2017 or even since world juniors 2016...
I agree she is vulnerable right now in a slow, tactical 1500 m race where she could get boxed out. She seems brash and confident enough not to allow that to happen. I think 3000 m is her best distance right now. She probably has a slightly better chance at placing at 5000 than 1500 though eventually 5000 and 10,000 will be her best events.