Salvitore Stitchmo wrote:
So I don't know if you saw/noticed this or if I'm off the mark here, but I don't think I've ever seen Jakob so far away from the front of the green light band here as early in the race as he was tonight. In Monaco he was right at the top of the bubble from the start - the first thing I thought watching it live today was "he's afraid to get out too hard in the first lap after Paris".
I do think it's a thing for him. I think he acutely aware he was out too fast in Paris and that running much faster than the high 55's, low 56's just isn't going to go well for him. Tonight he was 56.1 and clearly wanted no part of Rudolphs pacing which wasn't bad at 55.3 by any means.
It is this simple - if he wants to go at 3.26.00 he needs to be 55.3 and not just the pacer. Its too much ground to make up from 4-1200 to be 55.8/56.0 and get to 1200 in 2.45.5 (that's a sub 1.50 next 800m). I am on record on many threads with the same narrative - I don't know where this time comes from for him, right now I can't see it. And I would be more than happy to be wrong and have to eat these words but tonight gave me nothing that would dramatically change my mind on this.
No, you are right and it's an astute observation. He wasn't the only one that seemed to overcorrect for it. Komen got off well off the line but intentionally held back to run with almost no aggression. Sure, I'll allow he's mindful he's not at his Monaco form and wanted to just play it safe and get some points, but 57.3/56.1/56.5/41.5... Alright, unnecessary aside.
Jakob giving .6 away to McCann who was going a perfectly reasonable 55.5 was strange. He did get pretty close to back on the pacers at 800 and was pretty steady from there, but certainly not chasing a maximal time and being conservative. Which ensured he could go 13.5/13.3 for his fastest two 100m splits to close it out. Those are not crazy fast fractions by any measure, but Jakob is a machine as far as bouncing back from these moments and everyone else is not. I suspect Hocker will be much closer/stronger in 4 weeks.