Tonight was Nikki's best finish in an outdoor global championship. Not what Nikki was hoping for, but nothing to be devastated about. Nikki's PB wouldn't have been good enough for bronze. All things considered, Nikki ran well.
Are you trying to avoid pronouns? This is a woman so we say "she."
Just trying to keep the focus of the conversation on performance, not pronouns.
I posted this two weeks ago on another thread; aged like a fine wine...
Kiltedrunner wrote:
Hiltz has a long history of running well behind the leading pack and then kicking hard for 5th. I would have been less sceptical of her medal chances if she had at least tried to lead the race at any point or even stayed within a reasonable distance of the lead.
This post was edited 43 seconds after it was posted.
Truly remarkable that Nikki went from being “done” 3 years ago per threads like the one I posted below to people trying to argue that 5th at the world championships is disappointing. What an ascendancy.
They have posted several times about being unsponsored and selling t-shirts to help fund their training. Did they get dropped by Adidas or are they going after another sponsor? Any insight? What companies might pick them up,...
Bronze medalist Dorcus Ewoi has certainly had an eyebrow-raising annual progression. Had a 4:14 PB in 2023, ran 4:02 last year, and now 3:54 at almost the age of 29 (birthday is Oct 2).
Realistically, I don't think there should be that much disappointment in Nikki's finish. Certainly not devastation. Yes, Nikki's odds improved with no Tsegay, Hunter Bell, and Welteji, but the race was still going to be a fight for bronze. Kipyegon and Hull were the obvious pre-race picks to go 1-2, leaving Nikki to probably battle with Hailu and Chepchirchir for the last spot on the podium. Both of those runners have better PBs and resumes than Nikki, so it was always going to be a longshot for Nikki to beat both of them. Nikki did well to beat Hailu but didn't beat Chepchirchir. The surprise is Ewoi.
Tonight was Nikki's best finish in an outdoor global championship. Not what Nikki was hoping for, but nothing to be devastated about. Nikki's PB wouldn't have been good enough for bronze. All things considered, Nikki ran well.
What you wrote isn't entirely true. Nikki came into this race with a better pb than Chepchirchir.
Chepchirhicr's pb was 3:56.14 before tonight (Hiltz's pb is 3:55.33).
Post-race Nikki said many of the things you did - it's their best global final, etc.
The problem is they said something like runners don't skip steps, implying you go from 7th to 5th to 3rd. That's simply not true. Hull skipped a ton of steps last year. Dorcus this year.
In each of the last two global finals, many of competitors have run a PB and in the final and many of them have medalled. Nikki has not PBd and has not medalled.
Niiki started the race with the 4th best pb and 3rd best SB and finished 5th. Nikki needs some help to medal and she got a lot of it this year as there was no Tsegay, Welteji, Hunter Bell, etc.
If we line everyone up - Chebet, Tsegay, Kipegyon, Welteji, Hunter Bell, etc.- there is almost no chance of a medal but that's not what happened.
They shouldn't be devastated but that certainly not what they was dreaming of. Somone of Nikki's ability needs an A or A+ race to medal and they didn't do that today.
They? Nikki is her or she. All that other talk is literally just crazy. She will never win a global medal. I don't know why yall get your hopes up every year like she will be on the podium.
I generally agree, but there’s been a lot of speculation about how Hull managed to skip a lot of steps though. I don’t know if Nikki will medal, they probably need a race to go slow, which Faith won’t let happen, but I we have seen athletes float around the top 5-10 before getting to the podium. Centro, while far better than Nikki, is an example of this with his finishes before his Olympic gold.
Truly remarkable that Nikki went from being “done” 3 years ago per threads like the one I posted below to people trying to argue that 5th at the world championships is disappointing. What an ascendancy.
Hiltz has run 2 seconds faster than she did in that final. She doesn't have the guts that Hull has to commit on the last lap. Thus, she has never, and will never, medal at this level.
Well, I knew that with Nikki running against the best 1500 runners in the world, it seemed pretty clear from the outset that they would win and they would not. And that they would have to do everything they possibly could to beat them.
Either way, I definitely was picking them to triumph over them. They clearly had prepared for them, learning their strengths and their weaknesses, and coming up with their best strategy to beat them.
Overall, with Nikki competing against the world's best athletes, I feel that they ran a great race against them, and they clearly put in a great effort against them.
So not to state the obvious, but...it's clear that they did their absolute best! And so did they!
I'm so proud of them! Yay running!! They're all winners in my book!
Bronze medalist Dorcus Ewoi has certainly had an eyebrow-raising annual progression. Had a 4:14 PB in 2023, ran 4:02 last year, and now 3:54 at almost the age of 29 (birthday is Oct 2).
Realistically, I don't think there should be that much disappointment in Nikki's finish. Certainly not devastation. Yes, Nikki's odds improved with no Tsegay, Hunter Bell, and Welteji, but the race was still going to be a fight for bronze. Kipyegon and Hull were the obvious pre-race picks to go 1-2, leaving Nikki to probably battle with Hailu and Chepchirchir for the last spot on the podium. Both of those runners have better PBs and resumes than Nikki, so it was always going to be a longshot for Nikki to beat both of them. Nikki did well to beat Hailu but didn't beat Chepchirchir. The surprise is Ewoi.
Tonight was Nikki's best finish in an outdoor global championship. Not what Nikki was hoping for, but nothing to be devastated about. Nikki's PB wouldn't have been good enough for bronze. All things considered, Nikki ran well.
What you wrote isn't entirely true. Nikki came into this race with a better pb than Chepchirchir.
Chepchirhicr's pb was 3:56.14 before tonight (Hiltz's pb is 3:55.33).
Post-race Nikki said many of the things you did - it's their best global final, etc.
The problem is they said something like runners don't skip steps, implying you go from 7th to 5th to 3rd. That's simply not true. Hull skipped a ton of steps last year. Dorcus this year.
In each of the last two global finals, many of competitors have run a PB and in the final and many of them have medalled. Nikki has not PBd and has not medalled.
Niiki started the race with the 4th best pb and 3rd best SB and finished 5th. Nikki needs some help to medal and she got a lot of it this year as there was no Tsegay, Welteji, Hunter Bell, etc.
If we line everyone up - Chebet, Tsegay, Kipegyon, Welteji, Hunter Bell, etc.- there is almost no chance of a medal but that's not what happened.
They shouldn't be devastated but that certainly not what they was dreaming of. Somone of Nikki's ability needs an A or A+ race to medal and they didn't do that today.
Thanks for the correction about Chepchirchir's PB. Yes, you're right about that, but it doesn't negate my overall point about Chepchirchir and Hailu being tough competition for Nikki for the anticipated third spot behind Kipyegon and Hull. Look at Chepchirchir's resume, just from this year:
Won 4 DL races, which is 4 times as many as Nikki has ever won
Ran 2:29 in the 1K in Monaco, becoming the #4 woman all-time; beat Hull in that race
Beat a strong field including Hunter Bell in Paris
Won the DL Final
Nikki beat Chepchirchir in Brussels and beat Hailu at Pre, but anyone thinking Nikki was a shoo-in for 3rd tonight was underestimating Chepchirchir and Hailu. Both Chepchirchir and Hailu are young rising talents with upside, whereas Nikki may be maxed out. Beating 1 out of 2 was a good result. We didn't see Ewoi coming.
Overall, I think we are in agreement that tonight was probably Nikki's best shot of an outdoor medal, so in that sense it was indeed a slightly disappointing run as stated in your article. I also agree that Nikki needed to deliver an A or A+ performance to have a chance at medaling and didn't do that.
Even without an outdoor medal, Nikki has had a successful career. If anyone told Nikki in college, "You're going to eventually run 3:55, be a multiple-time U.S. national champion, Olympic finalist, world indoor medalist, and top 5 at an outdoor world championship," I bet Nikki would have been ecstatic.
Good. SHE claims to be a MAN, but doesn't run in the MAN'S races. Gee, I wonder why.
She doesn't claim to be a man. She claims to be trans-non-binary and uses special pronouns. She's a woman. Watched her run all 4 years in high school at Aptos High School.