Color me really impressed wrote:
Peanut butter wrote:
Does anyone have the men's winner splits ?
From 20 to the finish Lelisa Desisa ran: 4:53; 4:48; 4:44; 4:30; 4:45; 4:48; 4:41, and :56 (4:18 pace) for the last .2
From 20 to the finish, Shura Kitata ran: 4:53; 4:47; 4:41; 4:32; 4:53; 4:39; 4:31, and 1:00 (4:35 pace) for the last .2
Just looking at this, it looks like Kitata just plain ran out of gas. He looked stronger coming up Central Park South, but, he still had a half mile to go and may have hit the blasters a little too early. Watching him on the ESPN broadcast coming through mile 25, it looked like he was running really well and gaining on Kam and Desisa - and it was a bit of a shame that no one on TV picked up on that. Then, Desisa surged with about 1200m to go and Kam fell off. They made the right hand turn on to Central Park South and suddenly, Kitata was really giving a solid chase and almost instantly was shoulder to shoulder with Kam. And Desisa looked nervous....
Such an unbelievable finish and solid effort by Desisa to hold off Kitata. And a sub 2:06 on that course, which is also just incredible. Even the female podium finishers all stopped what they were doing to watch the end.
I am Kenyan and though I was rooting for Kamworor to win, in the end I was happy Desisa won. Desisa has had many near misses in this race and it was fitting for him to finally cliche the top spot. Shura Kitata did the work in that race and I wish it was possible to have two winners him being one of the two. His second place is very impressive and I see him get better from here.
Finally I have a passionate appeal to Kamworor. Kamworor is a master racer and great strategist. However the aggression by the Ethiopians yesterday caught him off guard. Normally Kamworor takes it out early because he doesn't have a big kick like Desisa for example. But the hills in New York and the fact that they were already moving at a fast pace prevented him from implementing such a move. Kamworor is also a "big" man and his running style is not fit for hilly course like New York or Boston. He reminds me of five time world cross country champion John Ngugi. A flat course or slightly hilly course is fine for him. Going forward he should exploit his greatest potential which is the half marathon. His challenge to change gears fast enough especially at the end of races makes it hard for him to contend for the 10000m at the world championships. Unless he finds a way to go out very early, maybe paced by one of the Kenyan team members, I see him getting disappointed like in 2016 and 2017. He should therefore train hard and attempt the half marathon world record at the Valencia race next year. But before that, he should go for his third world cross country title. His third place and a 2:06:26 in New York was a superb performance for him and he should not feel bad about it.