I’m excited to tune into GST this weekend. But I expect the distance athletes to give a reasonably full effort during their races. It will be massively disappointing if we get full-fledged jogfests. The athletes are getting paid handsomely; they should give the fans full effort.
C’mon now, Kerr is hoping the races (the few he actually shows up for, you’ll see) all turn into sit and kick snooze-fests.
Wavelight matters but we all know Jakob is the deciding factor. There have been 39 sub-3:30s (41 including en route splits) in the last three outdoor seasons, ZERO of which were run without Jakob in the field (and leading for the majority of the race on top of that). Most simply can’t do it without him, and the few who can have never had the guts to try.
Wow.
How did ElG or Lagat or even Kiprop ever run sub 3:30 before Ingy came along??
BTW, isn't this Ingebrigtsen guy the one who came in 4th place in the Olympics? ...and lost to three of the guys racing this weekend?? I fact, aren't there 5 mid d guys who won olympic medals racing short distance this weekend?
In fact, I'd bet 100 dollars if Ingy was racing in Jamaica this weekend he might lose again in this format. No pacers, no wavelights...and he'd have to race an 800! Nope, the only way he'd win this weekend is if he raced the long distance category.
Personally, these races would be even more exciting if they didn't even use standard timing and just raced and only timed the difference between racers.
GST should use short tracks. WA allows them for outdoors now, they're smaller and cheaper to build, they're easier to sell out to look good for TV, and the leader gets a substantially larger benefit for leading and making the pace quick because of how much harder it is to pass indoors.
Yes.
MUCH more spectator friendly than watching two figures duel it out going into the final curve over 150 meters away.
Wavelight matters but we all know Jakob is the deciding factor. There have been 39 sub-3:30s (41 including en route splits) in the last three outdoor seasons, ZERO of which were run without Jakob in the field (and leading for the majority of the race on top of that). Most simply can’t do it without him, and the few who can have never had the guts to try.
Wow.
How did ElG or Lagat or even Kiprop ever run sub 3:30 before Ingy came along??
Well, they had gonads and led out races all the time.
Duh.
Unlike sit-and-kick one-trick ponies Hocker and Kerr.
Predictably, an embarrassing jogfest from the 5000m crew. I will not be tuning in again. That effort was abysmal.
I actually think the Ethiopians will change the tactics for the 3K. They can’t jog and get outkicked again.
@kylemerber - please do something about the splits. The production is just not good. At least have 400m splits and K splits, even if it is slow. Show the laps to go as well
This entire event is going to be tough to spin into anything but a failure. We had a viewing party with a high school track team that turned into a ping pong tournament out of boredom. The coaching staff watched until the 6 minute mark of the 5000. OMG that was miserable.
This entire event is going to be tough to spin into anything but a failure. We had a viewing party with a high school track team that turned into a ping pong tournament out of boredom. The coaching staff watched until the 6 minute mark of the 5000. OMG that was miserable.
This is what GST deserves. What a sad showing for the sport.
That’s just a correlation. Correlation doesn’t equal causation. All the sub 3:30 races happen to have Jakob because he enters all the fast races. Last year’s Monaco 1500 would have been sub 3:30 without him.
I disagree. Someone has to be willing to push the pace once the pacers drop off for a race to go under 3.30. That someone is always Jakob because he knows he's the strongest runner and thus it gives him the best chance of winning. You typically don't go to the front and push the pace just for the sake of it. Timmy C did it back in the day because he was the strongest. If Jakob wasn't in all those 1500 races which went under 3.30 then who pushes? I'm not saying there wouldn't be any, because we saw what Kerr did at Prefontaine last year, but there would certainly be fewer.
You were wrong. Lots of sub 3:30 races now without Jakob.