YorkshireFell wrote:
Oh come on. It’s not a great start is it? She’s raced once and got injured. Even without the injury she wouldn’t have been that close to Keely and the other leaders in the world. Yet now she has zero experience apart from once race AND hasn’t been able to train for the event….
It takes years to perfect the 800m. Keely used to make lots of tactical mistakes and she’s always run the 800m.
Think you’re getting a bit over enthusiastic about Femke’s chances. But it’s always good to have some new competition.
I say all of this as a Femke fan - she has the most beautiful, elegant form and makes her running look effortless.
I genuinely don't understand how anyone can say it wasn't a great start to Bol's 800m career.
She ran once, and ended up as the 10th fastest in World Indoors, breaking her countries NR. And considering she ran 1:59.07 with questionable pacing in parts, it points to her being in 1:58 form. That is after, what, 12 weeks max training at her new event?
Don't forget they were undecided whether to even race her indoors at all at one stage. Not because of injury, but because they just wanted to focus on training.
I think the injury was slightly overplayed. She did it before her 800m debut in training (you can see the strapping in her 800m video) but it wasn't enough to stop her running. Yes, she aggravated it, but she is back running.
It is totally unfair for anyone to put Bol as a challenger to Hodgkinson yet. Anyone with any sense knows, including Bol herself and her coach, that she isn't anywhere near Hodgkinson's level. But this is her first year at the event, for goodness sake! Giver her another 12 months experience, another winters training, and let's see where she is in 2027. Her one indoor run was hugely promising. Now let's see how she runs in tactical races, not time-trials. She may well fair much better in a tactical race than a wavelight paced DL meet, if the pace is slow, because of her speed.
