Peach Pit wrote:
Agreed, but look on the bright side: It's a better storyline for the Olympics :)
As long as Wightman is back into peak shape next year, the 1500 is gonna be incredibly exciting. I'm really hoping Hobbs, Teare, or Hocker break 3:30 this year just to set it up even more. GB has a world champ and an Oly bronze medalist, Norway has a 3:27 and a 3:29 guy, and the US has a 3:29 guy with a bunch of guys bubbling in the 3:31-32 area. When was the last time the 1500 has so much depth outside of Africa? Even discounting times, there's so many European/American/Oceania runners at the front of DL races. Are we gonna see a similar trend in longer events soon?
It's framed as depth because the numbers look similar. But as the race plays out the gaps are enormous. There's one guy dictating, a few straining to hang on, and others who are barely within lens view and lucky to get their names called. Hocker was never mentioned during the main NBC Tokyo feed after the opening stages of the race. That's the reality of the sucker closers, even if they draw raves here from the time trial goofs.
Jakob needs to stop wasting so much energy early in the race. That's one of the reasons Wightman prevailed in Eugene. Jakob with his typical slow start was forced to run in outer lanes the entire opening 90 seconds of the race. Wightman in contrast quickly tucked on the rail and didn't spend much time outside other than final lap while setting up the pass.
Jakob also needs to be more aware and ruthless, like Farah. We've seen glimpses of the acknowledgment this year. I think the Tokyo race lulled Jakob into believing the gap over the final lap would be sizable and easy. Last year he knew he put away Cheriuyot and assumed that was enough. He looked left toward the infield just before Wightman surged beyond. That won't happen again. The Eugene 5000 was first evidence of more margin for error and this year he's applied it time and again.
Best chance to defeat Jakob is some type of kamikaze maneuver.
