What Happened to Kaki at the Olympics?

just watched it again. at the end of the first lap he tries to go to the lead. the algerian makes a block, forces kaki to lane two. a bunch of people followed the algerian. kaki was left all alone in lane two, and finally when he makes a move to tuck in behind someone, Reed comes in to block. after that kaki didnt respond. watching him in the final 200m though you could see something was wrong. maybe he did have diarrhea.

where did you rank Lagat going to the games?

Hallster wrote:

Wejo - why are we always looking for excuses for runners? How many times has the food poisoning, jet lag, overtrained, undertrained, too fat, injured excuse been thrown around when it comes to Webb?

Could it be that Kaki just had a bit of Webbitis?

Never.

What you don't get is there is always a reason a race doesn't go well.

You just call it an excuse.

borza is super quick but he got caught up in the pack, a big weakness for him. he shines when he's managed to stay out of traffic to preserve is superior turnover.

symmonds is stronger than borza but not as quick - he can cover more moves and weaving in traffic seems to affect his finish less. in that semi he just screwed up (by his own admission) - worked wayy too hard in the curve - he may be aerobically strong but that was too much, he faded bad. (on paper he may have been 10th or whatever but i had thought there was a high chance of him being in the final, he's usually a good racer, gets a lot of results out of his 1:44 times)

kaki i just couldn't figure out. those comments about trying to make a move at the bell and not being able to tuck in help me understand it a bit, but that last lap just looked too pitiful...

i had really wanted to see all three of them in the final

Too Old for this Trend wrote:

Never.

What you don't get is there is always a reason a race doesn't go well.

You just call it an excuse.

Oh I get it, my point is that sometimes the reason is simply "wasn't as good as the competition" or "cracked under pressure"....it just seems like many are often looking for something easier to swallow, ie food poisoning, jet lag, overtraining, when it probably isn't the case. I'm not saying that was the case with Kaki though.

wejo wrote:

I just got sent a link today from last weeks Düsseldorf 800 where Beijing silver medallist Ismail Ahmed Ismail cruised to the win over Reed College's Boaz Lalang and Yuriy Borzakovskiy.

Here it is (I'll work on embedding it)

http://www.themazecorporation.net/lv/?p=13901

Isameil is great (he was a finalist in 2004 as well), but he's Sudan's #2 800m man. It reminded me of Kaki at last years Olympics where after winning every race all year and his heat, he finished 8th in his semifinal.

Does anyone know what caused Kaki to do so badly? He didn't race in 2008 after Beijing.

I recall reading on this board soon after Beijing Oly in a post by Renato Canova regarding Wilfred Bungei's training leading up to the championship. I think Renato gave an explanation as to why Kaki flopped in his semifinal.

I think he mentioned it had to do with Kaki's minders making the mistake of allowing too many interviews hours before the race, which increased the pressure on the boy and made him more tired than necessary.

Still looking for the actual thread......

Ok I've found it.

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?board=1&id=2640566&thread=2640566

Paddy White wrote:the stifling heat in Poland at that time of year.

[/quote]What planet do you live on? You keep going on and on about the legendary heat in Poland, which is news to me. Warsaw has an average high in the summer of 22 degrees. It was 26 degrees when Kaki ran the final at World Juniors according to the official race report.