Cole Hocker will have a hard time beating Sam Ruthe

Let's be honest, if Hocker loses to Ruthe it will be truly truly shocking. 16 year old vs seasoned Olympic Champ.

Hocker making the race too slow is playing with fire.

Also, other people in this race other than Ruthe.

Genuinely do think that Sam is probably in better 800 shape right now than Hocker so if he doesn't make the race hard from the gun he could be in for serious trouble

Hocker can win this race any way he wants. Ruthe is not in his league at this time. It is amazing that some of you cannot grasp this.

Ruthe has no fear and the balls of a Gorilla! If Hocker slows the pace, expect Ruthe and Tanner to take charge of the race! Then it becomes everyman for himself in the final lap with Hocker having to overtake.
Ruthe and Tanner are capable of 3:47. Can Hocker? That is the question.

take it easy nick.

After seeing Cooper destroy the field and all historical US runners (save Hoey), I would have to agree. Super shoes/bi carb is tuned for teenagers

Not happening

I knew he was going for it.

As I was saying, just stating the obvious.

As usual, I was correct.

This board truly is the gift that never stops giving. No grifting, no blue checks, just absolute dogsh!t takes for the love of the game

Well now. I guess we can see who has recent Olympic gold and a world championship gold medals.

Close, he won by five seconds

Welp Sam Ruthe 3:52 as opposed to Hocker's 3:45.9 and american record. LOL

As I was saying LMAO
Hocker didn't slow the pace as some were saying. Kudos to Hocker, Sam finally had a "bad race" But hung on till the last lap and is still only 16. Had nothing to lose and went for it!
Another race next week. Then back to home in NZ. And back to school lol.

Obviously didn't see that coming :D, got that very wrong.

At 809 he was 1.54.24 and I felt pretty good about the prediction because you have to be in incredible shape to keep the impetus going off that rhythm. By 1209 (2.51.12) it was clear he was because that sub 55 final lap was happening no matter what.

That's an incredible performance on a track where the distance running hadn't quite lived up to the billing (or at least the target times). Of the mile/3000/5000 races across mens and womens all afternoon, this was the only race of the 6 where the intermediate split was actually hit and the target time beaten.

Had that been at BU he would have broken the WR. I have no doubts about that.

This was a great reality check for Ruthe and camp. And it's a testament to his level that a 3.52 mile indoors at 16 is a "letdown". But this shows the difference between races where you have relatively little traffic to deal with and can just churn out splits either on your own or with one pacer - because every race he's had so far this season has been that scenario. Either running freely from the front or having Tanner, Peter Sisk to do it for him. When you have bodies around you, pressure on your space, little ups and downs of acceleration etc - it's very different.

But back to Hocker, he is right in middle of his career peak and that window is wide open. He's the best on the planet right now by some margin.

Since it's being argued here that outdoors is no faster than indoors Hocker is still over two seconds behind Ingebrigtsen. I suppose that's progress. But he is a whole second faster than Kejelcha indoors. That, too, is progress. Of a sort.

As it's also maintained that Hocker loses so many races because he hasn't "peaked" he must have peaked for this race. So maybe he might even win some outdoor DL this year? If he "peaks"?

Fked around saying he wanted to beat hocker and found out.

Hocker has progressed and peaked as the stats indicated.

number one in the world mile 5k, isn't very far off, of course he needs the big win or two, no losses.

well done