12:53.73 @ 26:33.84 - What's the point?

No, Jakob is the norm. BTC is an exception and the existence of this thread proves it.

Of course it’s easier to compete in Europe when you already live there, but plenty of American athletes still find a way to do it every year. Fisher and Ahmed are way too good to be staying home all season.

Rather quick, but no one is convinced he's going to medal at Worlds. And did you refer to his 10K AR as a "race?" You're better than that bro

“All season”. The season hasn’t started or just barely started.

North American based runners, if they are still feeling it after worlds - will be going to Europe - duh.

Am sure Fisher is convinced he will medal at worlds - that’s how great athletes think. the “no one” might be you. Being a fan of Fisher I hope he does and believe he can. However, that was never written so am unsure why you made that statement.

The 10k was a race for all who ran it. Just because two guys (very very good runners) pulled away from the field doesn’t make it less of a race. It was a race for first and second just like it was a race for third, fourth, fifth etc. Oh, almost forgot… the two guys who weren’t racing in your opinion happened to change positions several times to the point of thinking one had won with 200 m to go just to have the other come back and snatch the win. Don’t know if you watched the race. I did, and that was a phenomenal race where the American and Canadian records were set and some of the fastest times in the world - EVER.

Just to be clear, the @ symbol denotes an "at" sound, not an "and".

Hey genius, Fisher and Ahmed ran a combined total of three races in Europe last year. That was the reason for my statement.

The 10k was a time trial. Two teammates chasing separate national records in a field with no one else even close to their level is hardly a race. They could have done this in practice (like we’ve seen before) and the outcome would have been the same.

This is not a serious subject. Much strenuous arguing about a not serious subject. Interesting how some of you care so much about trivial matters.

The idiocy of a few on this thread is honestly staggering.

First, as pointed out before, Fisher HAS to “duck” Pre to run the trials to make the world team. Complaining about how many other btc athletes are in that race is completely idiotic and frankly voids your opinions on other things, imo. (Not Jerry’s choice, usatf did that).

Second, the selection process for the US is different than lots of other countries. Some don’t have trials, or if there are trials a committee can still select other athletes. Because of this, proving fitness and times is beneficial for others and the exact opposite for the US. Who cares what Americans run elsewhere, you have to perform on one specific day to make the team.

I agree with the general sentiment of needing more races with marquee athletes facing off, but this is not the specific example to prove that.

Fisher has massive talent but Schumacher is doing him dirty by keeping him in the US and running TTs. He can't progress running on the US circuit as they aren't races for him, such is his talent compared to everyone else. He needs races against fields that are in his league. He stated in interviews after his 26:33 that his biggest challenge at the Olympics was the yo-yoing pace, Elise Cranny said exactly the same thing. You don't learn how to deal with that by crushing domestic fields and running TTs on high school tracks. Fisher and Cranny need to get into DL races, learn how to race when the pace varies, and also get experience of the physicality that East African elites bring to races. My prediction: if Fisher doesn't leave the US to race before the World Champs, he will finish 5th/6th in a time that is well inside his talent level

..sure he could do that...and then not be allowed to run the 10K at worlds. Then you would complain about that I am sure.

.,....

I don't agree for 2 reasons;

1..) the athlete not competing because injuries or injury prone

2.) Focusing on training and medaling at World Outdoors.

Now if later in the season at World Championship and they don't medal or come very close then not competing pre Championships was all for NOTHING.

Not the point of this thread, but i dont think you can unequivocally call Grant Fisher America's best distance runner until he beats two-time olympic 5000m medalist Paul Chelimo head to head.

"I agree with the general sentiment of needing more races with marquee athletes facing off"

Jerry is taking care of his athlete by managing his schedule and making sure he has the best shot for a medal at Worlds.

How is this different than Frank Vogel resting LeBron James for the playoffs by having him skip games (not playing the full 82) during the season?

It may make complete sense from a business standpoint but it totally sucks for the fans.
Who would not want to see a 3K indoor between Grant Fisher, Cooper Teare and Cole Hocker? The three best American MD runners. Have they ever raced together?

What makes this frustrating is that Grant is in 26:33 shape. Never has an American been this fast or had times at 5K and 10K that are comparable with the East Africans.

I guess we will have to wait.

Agree with this. Chelimo gets so little respect for a guy who has three global medals to his name. Fisher got more appreciation for finishing fifth in Tokyo than Chelimo got for winning a bronze medal.

I take it you haven't actually bothered to look at the Doha programme. What race should Fisher have run there? Assuming he hasn't yet learned to steeple, his only option would have been the 1,500, where he's not really world-class, and where there's a grand total of one European entered. Fontes is from Spain, a ~6-hour direct flight to Doha. For Fisher, the absolute best-case scenario to Doha is 17-hour multi-leg flight, with most flights being more than 20 hours. You can call this an "excuse," but most of us -- even those of us who'd like to see the Bowerman guys racing more -- would see it as a rational decision.

The same thing goes for the OP railing about Fisher skipping Pre, without understanding that he needed to run US Trials the night before. Sometimes what looks like bad decisions from a distance are actually completely understandable decisions when you have all the relevant information.

That doesn't mean you have to agree with all their decisions. But I do think there's a flaw with the idea that "Wow, he's running 12:53 and 26:33 in these low-key meets, he should go barnstorm around Europe and throw down every weekend." Maybe one of the reasons he has run 12:53 and 26:33 (unlike any other American in history) is that he's not barnstorming around Europe and throwing down every weekend. Sometimes you have to choose.

Fisher hasn't done anything egregious this year. He chose records over World Indoors this year...and it's fine. What the true test will be is if after making the US Team, how many Diamond Leagues will he do? If the answer is 1 or fewer, that's pretty lame. It's an early Worlds and even if he's conservative before...afterwards, he should be racing.

Not that "barnstorming around in Europe" is what I proposing at all, but better runners are running in far more meets, so this is a moot point.

Anyways, Its a shame that Fisher have to peak for a meet to be selected for worlds when in reality he has no competition for his place. It would be great for the American audience to see their best meet the worlds best outside the olympics and worlds.

This year after the Championships, there is Monaco, Brussels and Zurich all running the 3k/5k. I'd like to see Fisher in every single one of those and really at least 2 (he'll need to perform well to get in the DL Final).

Your original post was based on two points

1) grant ran a "nobody saw it" 5k, and

2) grant not running Pre, WTF

Both of those points now shown to be blatantly ill informed/flat out wrong. Nicely done.