Ruxton Towers XC wrote:
Potential to win medals? That's easy. Kessler has a better shot than Valby.
He is a) already much closer to "world class" than she is, and b) races in an event where the top five in the world are usually only two or three seconds apart in any given race. That means if he can "be in the mix" he can maybe get a medal.
There is no realistic scenario where Valby can get a medal in a world where the times are 3:50 in the 1500m, 14 flat in the 5km, 29 flat in the 10km, and 2:10-2:15 in the marathon.
Valby can not run those time (no clean athlete probably can, sorry to say). It is like when the Chinese women broke the records in the 90s. There is nothing the rest of the women could do. This is not Valby's fault, but there is no magic training technique that will get her down to 13:58 or whatever the women will be running in the next few years.
Kessler, is not just closer, he is World Class, he was 5th in an Olympic final and made semi's in his off event. And is the 4th fastest performer in the Indoor Mile in History. I would say, he is tracking along just fine.