Offal Day 6 Worlds Discussion Thread (Men's 5000m heats, M/W 200m semifinals, Women's 100m hurdles finals)

CAS says you're wrong. And you are. It's called fantasising.

Agreed. I can't believe anybody was stupid enough to believe Bol would be pushing for a fast time. That race was unlike anything else in her career, in terms of expectations and pressure. Her reputation would have been drastically altered if she had failed.

All that mattered was winning.

Besides, her time goal this year was 51. She mentioned it in numerous interviews. She didn't expect to get there until Budapest. Once it was out of the way all the way down to 51.45 in London that totally removed the time focus in Budapest.

The commentators were idiots for looking at 51.45 and thinking Bol was anywhere close to breaking 51, let alone threatening 50.68. Fans were equally suckered. I emphasized immediately after that race that Bol had a freakish closing finish that she would not be able to approximate.

I posted these in another thread but here are screen shots of Bol reaching hurdle 8 during the 51.45 in London, and today during the 51.70. Notice that she was a half second faster in Budapest -- 35.7 to 36.2 -- yet finished .25 slower. That's because today she had her typical finish while in London it was like she was running downhill:

The 5000 prelims and most of the other races are available here. Scroll down a bit. This site is the gem of track and field. They got off to a slow start this week in terms of uploading events but now they are including almost every one, along with full session videos. Everything is the world feed:

allathletics.tv

All Athletics

Follow the best of Athletics - Watch Live all European and World Athletics Championships. Find all replays from past editions.

Link:allathletics.tv/videos

Norman, yes, however, I would be very surprised to see Gardiner make another global final in his career. He’s been so physically fragile and now I also doubt that he will ever be able to truly commit to racing at 100 per cent again.

How do you think MHS could get closer to Norman in the next 12 months. I couldn't understand changing tactics when he paced it so perfectly in semi final

Nordaas is a mediocre 5000m runner. I doubt he will be able to hang on in the final unless it´s a slow race. In a slow race, however, he could be a medal contender.

What about the 20 years old Norwegian guy?

He said he shut it down thinking he was safe because he didn't account for Chelimo's out-of-nowhere kick. He is not a mediocre 5,000m runner. Getting into the final this year meant sub-13 fitness and he did it with the 1500 final the night before in his legs.