Here I 100% agree with you. The tendency to hype up people to hard isn't good, they are being set up for guaranteed failure. A 9th is really good for a runner (almost) without international merits. And its a great start for Klecker!
I have no idea why anybody would think that Joe Klecker would be around at the the finish. The U.S. currently has only one world-class distance runner, male or female, and Joe Klecker ain't that person. At any rate, he ran as well as I thought that he could. Well done, Joe.
This is a weatherman prediction. "Chance of." Even if he DNFs you can still claim your "chance" prediction was right. We'd all love to see Joe or Grant medal. Hard to see Joe in the top five, but a top 8 within ten seconds of the winner would be fantastic.
Johnny Gregorek - Men’s 1500 - 1% I would kill to run as fast as him but he’s the very definition of a middling elite runner. I’ll be quite surprised if he makes the final. He’s an eighth place semi finalist if ever I saw one.
Screenshot your post and sent to Klecker. Anti American POS
I didn't say I didn't want him to medal. I said he wasn't going to medal.
I follow the sport for a living. He's not at that level yet. 9th place today showed it. I probably expected him to finish a little higher.
Occasionally I'm wrong on an athlete (Molly Seidel medalling at the Olympics) but nothing Klecker did until now suggested he would medal.
You expected him to be a little higher? Who finished ahead of him that you would expect him to beat? All the guys ahead of him are significantly better. I think he ran well, and won his race. I said in the thread he should aim to be the best of the rest which is what he was. He beat Worku, McGorty, Gressier, and Kwemoi, all guys with better PBs than him. Klecker is trending upwards and ran a good race. He should be happy with how he performed.