It's official: Laros is the favorite. Laros BLASTS field in DL finale - Nuguse goes home devastated in 7th

Running 3:29 off a 3:30/31 pace doesn't prove that Laros 'very clearly' has a 3:27 in him. The margins at that level are super thin- you saw what happened to Hull last night when she tipped over her pacing limit ever so slightly- see also Jakob at the Olympics. A half second here or there of misspent energy can have you running through treacle by the end. Also, someone above already mentioned Kerr closed a 12.5 this season so it's literally not an 'unmatched' kick (albeit in a slower race). Jonah Koech also closed 12.5 in a 3:30 race.

I like Laros a lot and reckon he'll be on the podium but we don't know he can run 3:27 until he runs 3:27. The other factor that means we can't predict how Laros will do is Jakob. Everybody knows that every competitor will be keeping an eye on Jakob and whatever he does will change the outcome of the race- the others can't help but react to his every move, for better or worse. Laros will be one of about 10 guys that want to sit on Jacob's shoulder the whole race. What if someone else is there? What if Jakob goes way too fast? What if he goes way too slow? His massive presence in the 1500m has been an x factor that the others have not had to deal with this season and they've all had an easier time because of it. Also, some have already forgotten, but to my recollection Laros has never actually defeated Jakob or Kerr, and yet Rojo has already handed gold to him. We shall see.

I couldn't wager on Laros at this point. The betting odds will be lower than his true odds of winning. I'm too much of a power ratings guy to allow recency to overwhelm big picture perspective.

None of this has been accomplished with Hocker or Kerr or Jakob or Strand in the race. Far too many variables and unknowns.

Everybody is envisioning Laros doing the same thing he pulled off in the two most recent races. Meanwhile there is going to be a mad scramble and likely jostling for those ideal stalking positions. Even if Laros manages to get on the shoulder of the leader turning for home he could have several other elite closers smack on his shoulder. The other danger is that Laros thinks he can sit a meter or two behind those guys and out finish them just like Koech recently. Good luck with that.

IMO, Hocker will be the best value wager. The entire season has camouflaged his strengths and magnified his weaknesses.

I rewatched the 3000m race from the indoor European championships and Laros was dropped at 2200m.

They ran the first 2k in 5:29 which is slower than 8:10 pace. His development from that point is crazy.

Another poster noted that Laros was sick in that race.

There was a running article that mentioned what I’m going to mention . His beautiful because of the way he moves, Jakob used to move like that but stopped after early 2022. The movement we are seeing is actually that powerful dorsiflexion and you can see this by the way his feet lands and takes off on the inner balls of his feet. Basically he lands not on the outer ball of the feet but already on the inside and that gives his feet greater anticipation of the ground, faster reaction time as it doesn’t need to collapse from outside to inner ball before take off and goes straight to take off upon landing.

If you do not forget, the great Hicham El Gierrouj has the same exact replica of dorsiflexion with the main difference being he maintained such dorsiflexion ability for 8 years in top flight. Jakob only managed 1-2 years around 2020 and 2021 before he gave his Achilles injury to Elizabeth in love and we will see how long Laros is able to hold this dorsiflexion power. My guess is not long because looking at top flight runners now in the 800m and 1500m 2 years seems to the de rigeur. Just look at the Nuguse from starlet in 2023 to almost gone now in 2025 can’t even make the American team and not even a medal in the diamond league final. You see the same with Fisher and Hocker. 2026 another new crop of athletes like cooper will rise and it will also be 2 years for them.

I even think now that reason for Nuguse and fishers rapid decline from Paris and indoor season this year is not fatigue but effects carried over from abuse of micro doses drugs.

Nuguse face looks lost like a little child at the end in the interview. His words are quivering and he is unusually antsy about everyone and everything. He is not a man in control of destiny, somebody or something is controlling him instead.

that race was really impressive. we likely missed out on something very special from Jakob this summer.

You have no idea about Laros. When it comes to sprinting the last 100m, beautiful technique art is the name of the day. I’m referring to dorsiflexion artwork. Look at Athens 2004 1500m final in the section from 500m to go to 400m to go. Camera entrained on El G’s stride mechanics. That’s beautiful art work right there, see how that feet of his produce world class dorsiflexion landing on the inner balls of his feet and straight to take off bypassing outer ball. Also look at Athens 5000m final from 4830m to 5000m, the same beautiful dorsiflexion was applied and the result Kenenisa Bekele was beaten so easily. El G just basically opened up his stride there was no overstriding just insane inner ball dorsiflexion which produced enough ground force to open up his stride and go past Bekele. Bekele on the other hand was trying to open his stride but he found out he couldn’t and started overstriding and leaning forwards and arms flailing and breaking down. Same for Elius Kipchoge.

There is no proper training for inner va dorsiflexion. It just comes with the territory. As you get good stronger and fitter you naturally want to contact the ground quickly on the inner ball. Same for Marathoners which would make them more efficient. Kelvin Kiptum was an inner ball dorsiflexor that was why his stride was so huge for a marathoner and no disadvantage to stride frequency at all. In fact the more you dorsiflex on the inner ball the higher your stride frequency apart from stride length especially for last 100m of a race.

When was the last time Jakob got crushed in a track race?

2019 in the WCs as the age of 18 is the answer, I believe

Nuguse's face showed a lot of strain with 400m to go.

But he tough until the final 100m.

Laros, on the other hand, looked untroubled at 400m out

I’m not about to agree with you on that. Jakob didn’t run with the right dorsiflexion he used to run with in appledom. He was running fast but not fast and sustainably.

Next did you follow Laros around with a cctv camera to find out what made the difference these few months? No you didn’t because if you did you may be surprised the things he is doing or not doing to improve and get better has nothing to do with either training actual or diet actual. It’s more like in the recovery and I’m not referring to recovery as applied to number of easy days and pace of easy runs. That is the superficial definition of recovery. I’m talking about integrative mind body recovery.

Opposed to Laros, Nuguse is the antithesis of the work of art. From the day he took his first run out of high school to present day, I have always said this with ‘objectiveobserver’ he is a pain to watch and you see it didn’t take long for Nuguse to become also ran. It’s 2 years from 2023 to 2025 and I was right that if your run technique is that horrible as Nuguse this will be the timespan of your career in the top flight, very ephemeral. The deniers are going to hate so let it be.

Good 1500m running should look untroubled like Laros because it’s time for that to happen. El G was running like that without carbon plated shoes and modern tracks and Laros has not really proven that he will run like that day in day out for the next 6 years at least, he only won 2-3 races and looked good for a while but what counts is to be good for 8 years like El G. I’m not hopeful though because our world no longer prizes and supports longevity in sport as its dependent on longevity in health first. No health no elite sport. Laros is nowhere as healthy as El G at 20. He even was sick in that race and an ugly big acne already on his left cheek? There is unresolved tension in his body due to less than ideal modern health.

People come on LRC not to be entertained. They can go to movies for that Rojo. I for one come to LRC to read comments from my fellow commentators such as ‘objectiveobserver’ and ‘Kobbs Hessler’. I also yearn to offer my own take on things because I strongly believe in them.

Goes to show how much of a fluke that 3:43 the goose ran was, drafted 1490 meters contributing nothing to the effort.

Kerr has great dorsiflexion in 2023 and 2024. This year his dorsiflexion slipped up a bit. I analysed race footage and his feet placement is off probably by millimeters. The eyes catch small things you would be surprised just like the nose can smell the faintest gasoline from 100m away for some sub populations of sensitive human beings.

But you know Kerr has the experience and he knows he has done it before Laros is new to being a world champion. I still think Laros wins because he is so young and raring to go. He has that young man’s energy and hunger and it always brings great reward.

At this point in time I can see you are still incognisant of the powerful benefits of inner ball dorsiflexion. You have to attain a certain level of health and conditioning to ask your body to dorsiflex on the inner than outer ball. Laros wasn’t dorsiflexing like this in 2023 or 2024. Only this year he had it. Most of our clean and honest 1500m past and present champions used to or are currently still dorsiflexing on the inner ball. Only Cole Hocker, Asbel kiprop, makdaddy, manangoi, centrowitz didn’t show any inner dorsiflexion but still won gold how is that possible? Well drugs enters the picture. It’s very easy to tell the real athletes from the bluff ones and that’s looking at whether there exist inner ball dorsiflexion. Jakob used to have that and when he stopped having that he immediately got injured and couldn’t kick as well. Kerr and Laros and Timothy cheruiyot all had that.

When was the last time Jakob won a global outdoor championship 1500? The question is can he reverse that in Tokyo when he is unlikely to be in his best form.

"Right" things?

Sadly I think Yared fell victim to Grand Slam. He took it the most serious from the beginning and he just looked tired. He will come back stronger next year after some rest.

Laros is the shiny new thing. Sure, he may win in Tokyo, but that just means he's cooked for LA and opens the door for Strand.

Honestly, it's probably the most amazing thing of all about this period of unprecedented 1500 running that we don't see a repeat champion. Me personally, I'd be much happier if Jakob the old war horse got off the couch and won it after all.