Wow: Donavan Brazier is the top 800 m runner in the world

IAAF disagrees, Korir is currently ranked no. 1 and top US guy is Murphy at 5th.

https://www.iaaf.org/world-rankings/800m/men?regionType=world&page=1&rankDate=2019-06-04

Rankings are updated weekly so he might be on it next week.

jamin wrote:

He was at ~1:30.25 at 700m and looked ready to unleash. His plan was to squeeze between the 2 guys in front of him. They slowed down and moved too close together for him to squeeze through. At this point his cadence had slowed down and he had to check whether there was room to go wide. He went wide and sprinted the last ~30m. If he had a clear path for the last 100m and someone next to him that he needed to outkick, I think he could've sustained a long kick to get over the line in 1:41.9.

No, he reached 700m in 1:30.1. His 200m splits were: - 24.4, 50.7 (26.3), 1:17.1 (26.4) and 1:43.63 (26.5).

So Brazier was slowing down every consecutive 200m after the initial 200m. His last 200m was the slowest at 26.5, and within that last 200m he ran the bend in 13.0 and then slowed in the last 100m to 13.5! He just slowed down the least.

If you look at his race, he ran every bend close to curb in lane 1, thus running no extra distance, and was drafted pretty well from 200m to 500m.

I give you that he had to momentarily check his stride for a couple of strides in the last straight, before moving diagonally out, but that would have cost him 0.1 - 0.2secs. This is more than compensated for by 300m of drafting and no extra distance run, compared to say Rotich.

There is nothing about this race which indicates 1:41.9! His last 100m was his slowest, so that shows he had little left and couldn't have run much faster. Had he gone quicker in the penultimate 100m round the bend, then he'd more than likely have faded more in the home-straight and possibly have been beaten.

Brazier is in very good shape for this early in the season and ran the best tactical and most efficient race of the guys in 1:43 shape. It's a long season.

zxcvzxcv wrote:

How many times ever has anyone beaten 12 seconds for the last 100m of an 800m?

Zero?

No. Coe ran his last 100m in 11.9 in the 1979 and 11.8 in 1981 European Cup finals, albeit both were in 1:47 low.

79 - last 200m in 24.1, last 100m in 11.9 (you see him pass 110m from home line in 1:34.1 and the 90m line in 1:36.5)

81 - last 200m in 24.6, last 100m in 11.8

Rudisha ran 24.3, 12.1 in the final of the 2015 World Champs in 1:45.83