Alysia Montano deserves a Congratulatory Lets Run Page

lpd wrote:

"I salute her much like I did Rudisha in London fearlessly

taking it out and was rewarded.

Gawd. Comparing Montano to Rudisha? Rudisha is clearly the greatest 800m runner that ever lived.

Comparing Montano's WC race to Rudisha's OG race? Double gawd.

Rudisha's race at London was magical. One of the greatest performances in track history.

Montano? A weaving, cramping, falling down train wreck the last 50 meters.

Unbelievable that no one else has posted the paragon example of 800 front-running...ever:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKEOjWEzVGs

Splits of 24.6,24.7,25.0,26.2

Scaling for Montano: 28.4,28.5,28.9,30.2 for 1:56.0 FTW.

Rudisha provides a living, shining example for Alysia and her coach, and they remain in benighted ignorance. Until they do study and learn, it will be only more tears on the Mondo.

Not to get too technical here, but Rudisha's WR splits are actually as follows:

200m: 23.81 (23.81)

400m: 49.28 (25.47)

600m: 1:14.30 (25.02)

800m: 1:40.91 (26.61)

The craziest thing about Rudisha's race is the margin by which he ACCELERATED from 500m to 600m. His 5th 100m split was around 12.0!!!! And then he held on! Total baller.

the hard truth wrote:

she's jacked to the gill on steroids

Please provide the evidence.

xenomorph wrote:

Not to get too technical here, but Rudisha's WR splits are actually as follows:

200m: 23.81 (23.81)

400m: 49.28 (25.47)

600m: 1:14.30 (25.02)

800m: 1:40.91 (26.61)

Scale that to 1:57 and you get:

27.5

29.5

29.0

31.0

Instead she ran:

26.8

29.3

30.4

31.5

For 1:57.9, a half second from the Gold and 4/100ths from bronze.

"Idiotic" is a pretty strong word for going out 7/10ths of a second faster than perfect pacing for Gold. Consider, too, that she may have thought she needed to run 1:56 to win.

[copied from another thread]

As crazy as it apparently looks to everyone, the way Montano runs the 800m is one way to do it. When you are a legit low 52x 400m runner, going out in 56 is a training interval. If your 400m PR is over a second faster than everyone in field and if you don't have great endurance, why not try to put up a big lead. Tactics are based on your strenghts and weaknesses, they work and sometimes they don't. Running from the back or the front is high risk, it is a big gamble, but it has pays off numerous times. This time it didn't work for Montano, but no one can accuse her of not going for it.

I assure you that if a few of the ladies in that race had went with her, it would have been a different race, but, they didn't, they let her go and judged their race appropriately. Considering the magnitude of the event, I was surprised everyone didn't get caught-up and let her go and I'm sure Montano was surprised as well. Beating Sum and Savinova was doubtful anyway and she came with in a nipple of getting 3rd. You don't win multiple H.S., NCAA, National titles, DLs and make global championship finals and not know what you are doing. It was a fast race overall, Montano didn't run too far off of her PR after running rounds...how can anyone say that a 1:57x was a flop? Most years America's doesn't even have one 1:57x lady, this year we had 2, I think Montano missed out on a mdeal more so becasue of how great Martinez ran and Sum who came from almost out of nowhere. Like I said, I have seen Montano win tons of races doing it her own way and I think the focus should be on how great Sum and Martinez ran and not on Montano's tactics.

I find it strange that Everyone on Letsrun knows more about Montano and the 800m than Montano and her coach.

oldhalfmileguy wrote:

Coe 25 27 26

Montano 26 28 30

The fact that Montano went out at a pace that was basically what Coe & Juantorena went out in shows that she was foolish

and let her emotions get the better of her.

Who are you trying to fool? These are the real 200 splits:

Coe: 24.40

Montano: 26.80 on the screen, 26.91 officially.

In what parallel universe is 26.80 about the same time as 24.40?

Not to mention Coe lost that race by being too "tactical."

The top athletes in an 800m are usually in the front or the back and the ones in the middle are along for the ride.