Alan Webb Speaks: "It was a colossal breakdown"

obviousanswr wrote:

he missed out on learning valuable racing lessons in college

can you name two distance runners who, since the rise of the east africans in the late 80s/early 90s, have made their way up through the NCAA ranks (i.e. not just come in dominating right away) to become world-beaters?

i can think of one: Lagat. and he only made the huge leap to world-class AFTER the ncaa.

one example doesn't exactly make a strong case for the NCAA as good preparation for the world scene.

Webb is a great runner but with a stacked field at an international competition your running can't be just good or even great... It's got to be Extraordinary...

It wasn't a breakdown at all. It was a stupid tactical error. Webb did the one thing that would guarantee he lost and that was to lead in a slow pace. If he'd have hung back like Lagat, he would have done much better. If he'd have taken it out in 54 sec or less, he would have done alright too. He didn't do either of those.

I just watched that WC1500 final for the first time...Is it just me, or did Webb lead TOO MUCH?? That's a lot of energy, at a reasonably fast pace. He made it rather hard on himself, I think. And when it came to the last 100m....well....

I don't want to Webb bash. He had some fantastic races this year.

But why did he have to do so much leading in that final?

Fat Boy wrote:

It wasn't a breakdown at all. It was a stupid tactical error. Webb did the one thing that would guarantee he lost and that was to lead in a slow pace. If he'd have hung back like Lagat, he would have done much better. If he'd have taken it out in 54 sec or less, he would have done alright too. He didn't do either of those.

It wasn't real slow though.

Skuj wrote:

I just watched that WC1500 final for the first time...Is it just me, or did Webb lead TOO MUCH?? That's a lot of energy, at a reasonably fast pace. He made it rather hard on himself, I think. And when it came to the last 100m....well....

I don't want to Webb bash. He had some fantastic races this year.

But why did he have to do so much leading in that final?

I think the big reason he lead the race was to ensure that it was indeed a quicker pace, if there is one thing Webb knew it was that he has ran faster than anyone this year. It might have not been the right thing to do but you have to give it up for him trying.

Tactics wrote:

Skuj wrote:

I just watched that WC1500 final for the first time...Is it just me, or did Webb lead TOO MUCH?? That's a lot of energy, at a reasonably fast pace. He made it rather hard on himself, I think. And when it came to the last 100m....well....

I don't want to Webb bash. He had some fantastic races this year.

But why did he have to do so much leading in that final?

I think the big reason he lead the race was to ensure that it was indeed a quicker pace, if there is one thing Webb knew it was that he has ran faster than anyone this year. It might have not been the right thing to do but you have to give it up for him trying.

Sure....I don't want to bash. I just think he used up the most energy of anyone in the first 1400m. Even that really tall Kenya guy was in the back for a while, before surging. Would it have gone 62-2:06 if Webb had drafted? And anyway, I think Webb CAN win the last lap sprint type races.

And leading a slow pace might be OK. However, it was reasonably quickish to 1200m, eh?

The 1500m is the hardest race to lead. Discuss.

i do agree with Skuj and previous posters who have talked about Webb picking it up to keep up with kiprop when he took the lead around 4-500m.

that might have been the point at which webb could stay at his current pace and if need be let a few runners pass him. instead he chose to pick it up and stay right on kiprop's heels.

does anyone think that if webb would have made a very similiar move to his 2005 WC final that he might have placed better and maybe even gotten a medal?

i'm not suggesting the 12 sec 100m sprint but if he would have taken off with 600m to go and just dropped the hammer so to speak i wonder if he still would have faded so badly?

colonel obvious wrote:

i do agree with Skuj and previous posters who have talked about Webb picking it up to keep up with kiprop when he took the lead around 4-500m.

that might have been the point at which webb could stay at his current pace and if need be let a few runners pass him. instead he chose to pick it up and stay right on kiprop's heels.

does anyone think that if webb would have made a very similiar move to his 2005 WC final that he might have placed better and maybe even gotten a medal?

i'm not suggesting the 12 sec 100m sprint but if he would have taken off with 600m to go and just dropped the hammer so to speak i wonder if he still would have faded so badly?

Um, haven't you contradicted yourself?

Also, I think his semi was a confidence shatterer. He reacted too late on the backstretch and had to play catchup. His mindset on the final might have been "do the opposite of that semi".

Skuj wrote:

The 1500m is the hardest race to lead. Discuss.

Difficult, yes. Hardest, no. Try leading a marathon wire-to-wire.

Obviously Webb was overcompensating given his poor tactics in the prelims.

Alan did the best he could.

He finished where he should have with what he brought to the table. He should be proud of himself. This has been his best showing to date.

One thing he may want to take into account is that everyone in the field came to run for 1st. That is what makes it so competitive.

I get the feeling he thought it was going to as easy (for Webb) as following rabbits around a 400M track four times.