Nuguse & Kessler go home DEVASTATED. Koech FTW, Strand and Hocker make the team

Last year he actually ran the second lap slower, BUT that actually kinda mucked up the race for pretty much everyone but Ciattei. It was contested and Hocker/Kessler had to run wider. I think the big mistake is to lead these races fast enough so that guys run in a straight line behind you. Counterintuitively you should either go for broke or bunch up the field and then absolutely rip it.

I disagree. He is good enough to win the race that way - he did essentially the same thing at Pre and even though he lost to Laros he still beat Hocker by a second and ran under 3.46.0.

I think the issue today was his shape. His tank was getting dangerously close to empty after what, 3 big indoor efforts, 6 Grand Slam races and Prefontaine. An unnecessary 3.32 in the heats put him right in the danger zone and he just looked drained today. He didn't look relaxed at all after 800m (looked strained) and looked even worse after 1200.

Nuguse outdoor races before trials last 3 seasons:

2023: 3

2024: 2

2025: 7

Rest my case.

There’s something to this. But I think it’s actually more the nature of his last two races than the quantity. In the prelim he basically jogged a 400 and then ran a close to flat-out 1100 (2:32.6/2:18 1k closing split). Pre, he ran a 1:51 first 800 and went deep into the well. These races were just unnecessarily ambitious, when he could’ve gone through in 1:52-3 and in the prelims waited until the last 900 or controlled the race more like Hobbs.

Found the MAGAt.

Worth noting:

At last year's Oly Trials, top-3 times were 3:30.59/Hocker, 3:30.86/Nuguse, 3:31.53/Kessler.

So, Cole & Hobbs actually ran a bit faster this time around.

And, Strand ran 9 seconds faster.

Nuguse didn’t look good early. He was off today after looking good all year.

This boomer picked Koech to win

Yared showed a good finish in the Olympics when he didn’t lead.

No-the bye goes the defending world champion from Budapest, Josh Kerr

I also picked the 4 year old American to win it.

I personally believe it's a combination of both. The thing with looking just at the race times is that it's easy to quantify. We know a time and we can look at splits and that gives us a really good idea of the effort involved. But what is hard to quantify is travel and the emotional toll of racing all accumulates over and season and especially for the guys at this level where there are no down races anymore. Ever. When you try and assess that and take it into account, it is a volume thing too.

Nuguse should be able to handle Pre, that prelim and be good enough to hit the top 3 at trials - but it get's harder with so many miles on the clock in the last 6 months alone. And now if he wants to even make the worlds he has to go and run at least 2 DL meets just to get to the DL final and then win that. Good luck with that.

Kessler attended to some personal matters with his gf being in a serious accident a few months back

truly think that threw him off the ball this time

good people made this team, let it rip at worlds

Can’t wait for strand, Koech, and Hocker to run 3:26 at Worlds and all of you Americans will be drooling over these drug filled cheats

Jonah Koech could totally run into the 1:42s, right?

Yeah, but Ingebrigtsen wasn’t in the race today. For him to outkick Koech, Strand and Hocker, it needs to be a fast pace, and if he hadn’t set it, no one else would have either.

This is true. Nice wheels but has not been especially good at the end of 1500s. Was OK today but was well beaten by the others whom, in fairness to Kessler, ran exceptionally well.

I knew Strand was a great runner, but he's even better than I thought. Amazed that he has anything left in the tank at this late stage.

In his interview Hocker said it was windy on the backstretch. That must have definitely contributed to Yared having nothing left at the end after leading the entire race. It's the equivalent of running extra distance.

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Stand made a huge mistake when he lost the Ncaa's and clearly he learned from it. Great race