Official 2019 NBIGP Discussion Thread

Nice to see Brian Barraza racing again with a 7:52

DumpsterDiver wrote:

Felt bad for Moline in the 600. She was going backwards but it looked like Rodgers cut in too quickly and caused her to fall

No DQ for Rogers?

AXC wrote:

This mile is a classic example of the race not going storyline so the announcers spend half the race talking about Emma Coburn then she is never in contention.

1. Coburn is the reigning world champion and a New Balance athlete so obviously the announcers are going to highlight her.

2. Coburn was injured for a while and only started running again at the very end of October after 6-1/2 weeks of no running according to her Instagram:

3. She either stepped on the rail with her right foot (weird if that happened) or her right foot going back caught Aisha Praught-Leer's left foot going forward and caused her to trip (and Praught-Leer to nearly run into a large timing clock).

Thanks! Looks like it was a bit of a disappointing performance for "3:47 man" kejelcha. That said, I think he could do it at Pre barring terrible rabbit work

She ran 14:51 basically solo with splits ca. 9:10 for the first 3k and 5:41 for last 2k already in May 2017. And 8:36 (again getting faster ca. 2:55 2:53 2:48) a year ago indoors.

So last night's performance this is roughly the level she has been on since then except for some setback by her injury last summer. It is not yet the expected NOP boost, or at least it seems premature for me to say that.

Does anyone know why the women's 5000m field was so small and somewhat lackluster compared to the mile or the men's 800, mile, 3000?

Scrubb wrote:

Well you were spot on. Neither were a factor.

This has to be a big breakthrough for Purrier

It kind of is, but winning an NCAA title last year is a pretty good breakthrough too. She strikes me as very durable (maybe it's the farm girl thing)

to be fair they do have a little history of that, they used Christian Hesch to rabbit Mottram's 7:34.50 meet record. Probably the only guy besides Solinsky who mottram could actually get a draft from, haha. I think they've used Ford Palmer before as well?

rojo wrote:

I can't believe this rabbit in the 3k is a 4 minute miler. He looks huge. Who is he? Holt? Where did he run?

It was a New Balance sponsored meet and a lot of NB athletes were brought in to shine or promote the brand. Additionally, the meet director's key top athletes were to be featured as well (to the extent they were available to run). In the end, a lot of these featured athletes bombed or failed to excite. Almost as though they were there because they had to be, or just aren't in good shape right now.

With the exception of only 2-3 races, the meet was lackluster. A bunch of personal bests, maybe a couple of records, but contrast that with what we used to see before NB sponsored this meet - world records, american records, meet records. We used to walk out of that track blown away by what we had witnessed. The men's mile and 800 were each fun to watch as was the women's pole vault.

The women's 5000m was terrible. They went through 2 miles in 10:06 or something like that. The pacer took them out at the American Record pace and had at least 100m on the field by the time she dropped out. The women's mile at least had the exciting finish.

The fact that they have a 300, 500, 600 for women? Reminds me of the year they had a 3000m and a 3200m - all because Meseret Defar and Tirunesh Dibaba didn't want to run against each other. It felt like that here too. Like they threw in a 500m just to feature Sydney McLaughlin at the end. She won in a mediocre time. I understand she's just turned pro, running a distance she doesn't normally run, etc... But, wow did it lack any excitement. Again, I go back to when the meets used to finish with Craig Mottram blazing a 3000 or Tirunesh Dibaba setting an indoor 5000m world record. The ending used to have a pop and this one was like letting the air out of a half-full balloon

This was nearly everyone's first race since September. It's January and this was the first meet of the year. Lot's of tripping, stumbling, poor race tactics, etc.

Understood - but it's on the meet organizers to create competitive and exciting races and with respect to athletes, this meet has been the first on the calendar annually going back decades. This year was lacking compared to prior years.