I think Jakob's biggest mistake was allowing Wightman to pass him on the backstretch. I wonder what would have happened had he instead pushed and held Wightman into lane two on the bend.
By allowing him around, Jakob had to slot in for the entire bend, actually came out wide towards the end of the bend (running a little extra distance), and then had to try to go around Wightman where he ran out of steam.
“Allowing” him? I don’t think Jakob ‘allowed’ or wanted Wightman to pass him. And Wightman actually completed the pass and cut-in on the turn, indicating he was stronger at that point.
Wightman powered to overtake Jakob on the turn. He knew there were others potentially coming up on his right shoulder if he were to wait and try and pass in the final straight.
Once Wightman cut in, he make have broken Jakob’s momentum ever so slightly, but enough for the knockout blow.
In retrospect if Jakob could/would have done differently, it would be to lay it all out on that last turn, at all costs, to not let Wightman get around. But maybe he did try to prevent that as best he could, and Wightman, in the moment, had the greater momentum and strength to get around Jakob.
Agreed. Once Wightman cut into lane 1 on the turn, Jakob was done. Wightman looked like he had more life down the final 100m anyway so it probably would not have mattered even if Jakob had managed to hold him off for another 50-100m, but there was no way Jakob was going to rally and accelerate back around him after letting him by. You wonder what went through J's head in those couple seconds while Wightman passed him - either Jakob was conceding the race (doubtful), Wightman's move took him by surprise (maybe), or Jakob was a bit overconfident and thinking he would catch him in the homestretch. Either way, J rallied admirably in the final 100m for one last ditch effort but it was clearly Wightman's day.
Jake is a 1.44 800 runner.Jakob isnt.The man with the greater turn of sprinting speed won.
Well this couldn't be further away from the truth. Jake was a 1:44 800m runner in Tokyo too, but placed 10th. A bunch of other 1:44 men were beat in Tokyo and also now in Eugene.
Jake spent entire fall / winter season doing XC to build strength as that's what was missing, according to him. Quote Jake Wightman: “The days of finishing with a 51 or 52-second last lap have gone so I need to start moving from being an 800m/1500m runner to more of a 1500m/5000m runner.”
That is racing, Jacob covered more ground and lost the tactical battle. Probably should have won, as Coe should of in the 800m in 1980, but did not. That is racing.
Some great posts here! This one I think is definite - yes that era is over. Mario Garcia Romo and Cole Hocker could be the next versions of Wightman e.g. able to run 3:29 but also with serious kicks.
Cole Hocker just went from the obvious best hope for a US 1500 medal to one many young guys with outside chances. There's usually a window of a few years for the best 1500 guys, and staying healthy in the window is half the battle.
Stewie was MIA up the front, that's what fecked things up for Jakob.
Also, Wightman ran a smart race, pushed his way out past Kipsang coming of the bend with 300 to go then moved in front of Jakob with 200 to go, nothing illegal but close enough to put him off his stride and break his momentum, he then had to work hard to try to get back up there, which didn't happen.
Wightman ran the best tactical race of anyone, and with such narrow margins between the top 4 or 5, that was crucial. Not only did he run no extra distance on bends (less than 2m in total, unlike Ingebrigtsen who ran some bends in lane 2), he was drafted from 150 to 1200m (which saves energy compared to the athlete in front) and he ran incredibly economical splits - 41.7, 56.4, 56.3, 54.8 (or 55.8, 56.6, 56.1, 40.7).
Even his 100m splits differed in range (not including first 100m and then up to 1200m) by just 0.5secs: - (first 100m -13.5), 14.2, 14.0, 14.1, 14.3, 14.2, 13.8, 14.3, 13.8, 14.2, 14.0, 14.1 (1200m) - then - 13.6, 13.5, 13.6.
So just a 0.8 secs difference between any of the splits. That would even be impressive in a paced Diamond League world record attempt.
I think Jakob's biggest mistake was allowing Wightman to pass him on the backstretch. I wonder what would have happened had he instead pushed and held Wightman into lane two on the bend.
By allowing him around, Jakob had to slot in for the entire bend, actually came out wide towards the end of the bend (running a little extra distance), and then had to try to go around Wightman where he ran out of steam.
Dumb take, There's absolutely zero chance that Jakob "allowed" Wightman to pass him on the straight. Every rookie runner knows that you force your opponent to lane 2 to make them run extra. He just didn't have it in him to prevent this from happening.
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