OAC dodges Nur and Woody

"In case you're wondering why there are two heats..."

I think everyone's wondering why they were split up this way. Clearly looks like a OAC vs MSE standoff.

I don't think that happened on accident.

The counterpoint would be that we have all these guys (and gals) racing at Millrose. Yared is targeting USAs and World Indoors as well. We also tend to see them racing frequently in Europe for Diamond League races. With Bowerman, typically the only non-time trials or low-key (e.g. Portland Track Festival, Oxy ,The Ten) race before a Global Championship race was Pre which was a sponsor mandate. Grant, Cranny and Mo started to rebel against this and do more, we should note. The Ten this year will be a "real" race (plenty of competition), though obviously I wish they just held it in a more exciting fashion (e.g. road race, part of a bigger meet).
But yes, it would be very hypocritical if they weren't doing Millrose and other Gold/Diamond Level meets, but that has been their routine.

Why doesn't any coach or athlete ever admit straight out that they are ducking or that they didn't want x (=Woody Kincaid) to sit and kick on them in their AR attempt?

It makes sense for everyone to split the top guys between 2 heats if the only objective is the standard. If everyone chasing the standard is in the same heat, but nobody wants to run 10+ seconds faster, you are stuck with 2 bad options. Either the people in ~8th+ miss the standard because the winner ran the standard and they are necessarily some time behind him, or for everyone to get the standard you have people running 4 wide for the whole race. At that point you've effectively run faster than intended anyway.

We will get the head to head matchups when it's time, but for now this is a sensible approach to checking the necessary boxes in an Olympic year.

My career would’ve been benefitted from no one faster than me being allowed to run in my races. Doesn’t mean it isn’t cowardly.

I imagine if Klecker is trying to make a standard the last thing he wants is Kincaid in his heat.

And why is that? Klecker damn near broke the AR last year in the indoor 5k trying to drop Woody. Also I don't think an athlete of Klecker's caliber is in danger of failing to make the olympic standard if he is in top shape. If some guys like Woody and Nur sitting behind him is enough to make him lose the standard then he has other things to worry about.

I’d love to see Kincaid break his own record in the non OAC heat. Will make Kleck look like even more of a fool than he’s already previously shown

True but this makes Woody a much smarter racer than the others. Nuguse is going to do the same thing to Klecker.

Heat 2 is significantly better than Heat 1. Heat 1 only has 2 guys capable of going sub 13 (Klecker and Nuguse). Where Heat 2 has Kincaid, Fay, Young, Wildschutt, Nur, Jacobs, and Robinson, who all could scare 13 minutes if the pace is on point.

It’s easy from a fan’s perspective to think of it as a race between those 4 guys. But realize that there are 34 men between those two heats with seed times of 13:23.00 or faster, most of whom will be gunning for big PBs and/or Worlds qualifiers. Since running fast is the objective, it actually makes sense in the interest of fairness and maximizing qualifiers to split the field into two basically equal heats. Imagine traveling a couple thousand miles to win the ‘B’ heat in 13:07 and then watching 9 guys in the A heat run the standard while a couple “stragglers” finish in 13:20+…it seems you’d feel a bit ripped off.

I’m obviously in the minority here but I’m really not bummed about the situation. The way I see it, I’ll get to watch a world class group chase fast times, catch my breath and then do it again. And as others have been saying, these OAC guys in general are doing a great job of showing up and competing, whether it’s World Indoors, Diamond Leagues, or some road mile in Hawaii. It seems unfair to turn on them so quickly even if they did request this separation.

I don't think it's ever unfair to criticize a single example of requesting protection from competition (if OAC indeed did that).

I don’t know what heat that UK guy is in that always runs well indoors, but he seems to always be great at pushing the pace and/or being a far going pacer. Think he runs for puma. Really a talented kid, but seems kind of inconsistent.

We’re in an olympic year when every pro is dismissing indoor worlds and world cross to peak in August…and people are disappointed about an indoor season opener time trial in January not featuring the matchup they want? Let it go people. This is basically preseason football.

The problem with the sport is that all of track besides worlds and the olympics is treated as preseason

This is true. I mean the nba players would probably play at a higher level if they only played twice a week. Track is a strange sport where there are only a few races that seem to really matter. I almost prefer if they didn't have one all our world championship but 12-20 races you had to do throughout the year.

Sam Atkin?

In reality this is a pretty meaningless race anyway. All it’s there for is for people to get the standard and have a go at running fast. There really isn’t riding on who wins in the way there will be at Diamond Leagues, National Championships or the Olympics. Yes, it’s a shame that they won’t be in the same heat but it isn’t a big deal, certainly not in the same way it would be if Klecker and Kincaid don’t actually end up racing each other until the trials.

Ritz and Bernhard, meow meow

It’s tough because I see both sides of the argument here. I think the part that no one is really talking about is the demand emotionally. Having someone you want to beat and have a (kinda one sided) rivalry with in your season opener can be pretty emotionally draining. If you get absolutely waxed in the race you have to hear everyone talk about that. If you destroy your competition people will hype up that race and sometimes expect more of you the next time. I think this is essentially what Josh was saying that Mackey thought was draining about doing media. It’s hard to ply that tennis match in your head.