Now THAT was an entertaining, tactical race! (Women's 1500 final)

Tactical? Not tactical? Well, if we substitute "game plan" for the word "tactics" we can see that "tactics/tactical can, in fact, refer to simply the way an athlete plans to run a race. Of course, if an athlete in this race had decided to sit in and blast a fast final lap, well, that wouldn't have worked because someone else's tactics - Tsegay - made any pre-race - sit in and kick - tactics redundant. Tsegay's tactics/game plan was clearly to try to run the finish out of Faith.

I think it was supposed to be a team plan with Meshesha. Tsegay was so hopped on adrenaline she went 2 seconds too fast the first lap. As a result, Meshesha was too gassed to even help with the pace. At that point, she went to plan B which was to keep pushing it and hold off Kipyegon from taking the lead as long as possible. It did work to keep Muir and everyone else at bay.

Definitely entertaining. A good ol' foot race, going out at an honest pace and letting the fastest person win. What a concept. No gameplaying - just going out there and running. How refreshing.

Men better equal that tonight or else Pre's ghost is gonna be pissed

The problem with this "logic" is that it assumes that (a) winning is the only relevant goal, and (b) the slowest runners in the field will do better by leading. In reality, whenever one of the slower runners decides to take it out hard (and it does happen sometimes), not only do they not win, they also tend to get swallowed up by the pack and finish 11th or 12th instead of the 7th or 8th they might have managed by sitting and kicking.

Now, if your goal is "win or nothing," then you don't care about the difference between 7th and 11th. But many runners choose to optimize their finishing place rather than go all-out in an unrealistic attempt to win.

That doesn't mean there's a "right" or "wrong" answer. McGee acknowledged that she probably could have finished higher if she hadn't led the chase pack, but seemed glad she'd gone for it. I definitely respect that, but I also respect how Sinclaire Johnson ran.

Exactly. It frustrates me when people synonymize tactical with sit-and-kick. Sure, it's a tactic to storm to the front and slow it down for three laps if you have the best kick. Centro was a master of that. But there are other tactics! Tsegay threw in a huge first lap and then fartleked the next 700 to try and play mind games with Kipyegon and control the race. Did it work? No, Faith is just too good. But it was absolutely a tactic.

Non-tactical races can be honest races people go out to run their best times. But I'd also classify sit-and-kick races as non-tactical if those choosing to run it that way have an average kick. Tactics rely on people doing something specific (that has a realistic shot of working) to win a race that they perhaps would not win if everyone just went out at full speed.

It's 100% not a thought-out tactic to run 68s laps from the front when you've got better sprinters behind you.

Hoping that my lead opponent pulled a hammy was always my best option - whether it was a true tactic or not! I loved the race - was excited for the whole thing. It was tactical; especially when Tsegay waved Faith on. She was frustrated that her tactics hadn't shaken Faith.

I'd have to say you weren't there then. During the steeple, people were more focused on the field events and barely anyone even cheered during the introductions. Even the final lap of the race was low energy. People finally started getting into it on the last water jump, but even still, the triple jump and high jump was what captivated the audience.

The 1500 on the other hand was electric. Everyone put their binoculars down and stopped worrying about Barshim's final jump and were captivated by the race. Yeah, it slowed down, but the surges and brilliance of the race shown through and the crowd was as into it as anything else that night.

Maybe on TV it was boring for you, but it was all people in the stadium could talk about on the way out of the stadium.

In military terms, strategy is the plan while the tactics are the methods you use to meet that plan in real time.

A coach telling their athlete to go hard from the gun is a plan (strategy)

Tactics during a race could be surges, slowing the race down from the front, positioning, counter-positioning, and also defensive methods such as arm bars to avoid getting boxed, not allowing yourself to get spiked following too close, straddling land one&two to not get boxed, etc...

Once the fast pace was established, Kipyegon s only tactics used last night was to let Tsegay lead for 2 1/2 laps as long as it was fast and also to not get too involved when Tsegay freaked out when Kipyegon got close to her

Muir's only tactics was to hold on for dear life.

Tsegay's only tactics was to run fast begining to end (but she wasted a micro second freaking out over Kipyegon!!)

Basically, the three medalists had a great strategy and didn't have to maneuver much at all to make their plan happen.

What you refer to as “logic” is actually the intent of the race. The purpose of these races is to determine who will go on to represent the US. In that situation, if you are running for anything less than top 3, you running the wrong race. There is no practical difference between 7th and 11th in these situations. If you make no real effort for top 3 you might as well not run at all.

nah...Even though probably unlikely I thought there was a chance it was too fast and the group that went out at a reasonable pace could close the gap

I completely agree. Any pacing decision that is outside of a 'standard race pace' is a tactical decision. It's as tactical to go out and try to break the other runners as it is to go slow and wait for a sprint finish.

Any decision that an athlete makes that they believe will give them an advantage is a tactical decision.

On a side note, I'm just waiting for Rojo to say that he wants to see Kipyegon win a sit and kick race before he crowns her the GOAT. His contrarian case is going to be that she can only win by running one way.

Anyway, Kipyegon is the total GOAT, Tsegay ran the only race she could try and break her, and Muir is a baller to pull out 3:55 after showing very little so far this season. Together, they mentally broke the field inside 300m

That’s a strategy, not a tactic.

Since we've apparently gone pedantically into the weeds, see my above dictionary definition of "tactics" which uses the word "strategy", ergo they are more less synonyms.

Well, I would argue that it is tactically moronic.

Interesting. I was screaming "WTF?" at my screen. For the whole race.

At the bell, which I think was 2:51, I was wondering if this was a WR race.

This was certainly the case with the idiot who was filming the women's TJ.