Nordaas: «Im better than Beamish», blames organizer for chaotic race

I don't like when they have too many people in these races but it was the same conditions for everyone and at least 3 of them figured out how to deal with it.

Nordas was just the next next next guy

Seriously Hobbs is 20 & had to front run for most of the race. Maybe 14 is a big field for an indoor 1500 but what are we gonna cut it to 12? 10? Really don't like saying you're better than someone who won, taking away from what they just did. It looked like most guys were happy for Beamish after the race. If you're better than him then you learn how to race indoors & position yourself better. You got beat. Save the excuses/comments tearing someone else down. It's on you & you alone.

So Beamish wins the race clearly, but Nordas is better. At WC23, Kerr wins the race, but Ingebritsen is better. At WC22, Wightman wins the race, but Ingebritsen is better. And I thought this sport was about RACING FASTER than your rivals, but apparently it is just about time trialing during the year and then THINKING you are better than your rivals when the big time race comes...

He's not a lower tier elite though.
He won a Bronze medal in his first WC ever. And has a 3:29 PB.

Nordaas was well positioned with a lap to go. But he doesn't have a kick. So he can sulk all he wants, but the organisers aren't to blame for him going backwards.

Yes, there were too many but there would have been shoving anyway without an alpha front runner to keep it honest. They had just 6 in the men's 800m final and it was like a roller derby out there with Mariano, Crestan, and especially Robert. You have to compete indoors enough to deal with these situations. What happened to Nordas was that he got blocked at the line, guys on either side of him getting the jump on him and closing him out so he had to step back and start behind almost everyone, then he ran erratically with no clear plan, out to lane 3 back to lane 1 out to lane 3. In the end, it was his lack of a great kick that cost him the race because he got himself on the penultimate lap up to 3rd and then he let Cole Hocker box him on the backstretch of the bell lap because he wasn't taking the outside spot to pass and waited too long, then he simply did not have as much closing speed as Hocker, Beamish, Kessler, and Nader. He needs more indoor races under his belt and more closing speed. They can't all be a Jakob special.

This is why we have races.

If this guy wants time trial he should get himself some auto timers and stay home

I think to be fair:
Beamish's race plan as stated post-race was to literally just follow Hocker. He knows Cole is adept at staying in striking distance without running a ton of extra distance/wasting energy (like Nordas who got a worst start at the beginning and completely panicked).
I don't want to take away too much from Hocker because surprisingly to me the larger field and general additions probably hurt him (and Nader too) near the most (not Nordas!). Mehary was actively disrupting Hocker throughout with dubious tactics. The same stuff that should've had him bounced in the heats if he hadn't fallen.
Hocker got blocked or cut off and he only got to 5th at the bell when if you rewatch he was intent on getting to 3rd, but Mehary kept cutting him off and such which led to Nordas getting the angle on him in the penultimate lap despite worse position if Mehary runs a straight line instead of deciding to block Hocker and sabotage himself.
So, as it worked out Hocker ended up using the strongest part of his kick from 500 to 100, whereas Geordie stayed patient and was able to uncork the last 200 and especially last 100. I think both showed excellent fitness, and Geordie's hand worked better with all the chaos in front.

Geordie Beamish said himself in the post race interview: there are 3 1500m guys better than me on my team. I guess we need to add Nordas to that list, but gold is not theirs.

Geordie is modest and a good teammate. Sure he’s right at their best.
Mario is definitely not in shape, and Olli Hoare is out with injury.

In my mind, Hobbs had the best tactics. The chances of a fall was 80%+. It did not happen. Beamish simply got lucky that it didn’t. Beamish was 11th with 500m to go. Had there been a fall, he would have 100% been affected by it.

That being said, Beamish is a weaker runner than Hobbs, so he did not have the luxury to go to the front. He had the best tactics for himself. It was based on nobody falling. He simply won the lottery.

Nordas had the luxury to go to the front (being a stronger runner) and not sitting in lane 3. He did not. He simply had bad tactics.

Foes Gjert ever talk tactics with his runners? Surely he knows that going out to lane 3 with an international field can only lead to one results (unless Nordas was a 3:26 runner).

the whole indoor thing is a joke, makes the sport look bad.

I'm not interested in who can navigate traffic

Beamish is more athletic than the average mid-distance runner, hence the success in steeple. Not saying he can avoid carnage every time but I wouldn't say it's just luck. He's nimble, the way he can find a gap on the inside. Announcer on the world feed said an interesting thing—the steeple is so plyometric and dependent on explosive speed—it makes sense his kick could've gotten even better.

Is it a Norwegian thing to make excuses? Beamish Hocker and Kessler seemed to do OK.

Everyone excusing Jakob for losing when he's sick (2023 Worlds and 2023 Indoors) seems to think that getting sick is just completely unavoidable and it's not his fault at all. Arriving on the start line healthy isn't just about not being injured! If you consistently end up on the start line of major races sick, you are probably doing something wrong that's messing up your immune system when it counts, and if it's your job to be healthy at the start you should probably fix that. You wouldn't make excuses for someone if they repeatedly came to the race injured, would you?

I think Nordas is worse than Jakob.

Jakob says what happened eg: I made tactical mistakes as the Kenyans tried for the lead or last year I was sick.
Nordas uses context unrelated to him to justify his failings. Yes he admitted poor tactics but he diminished them by acting like the large field excused them and made it a stay-on-your-feet contest. He blamed the organizers. Jakob admitted Wightman executed better than him and used his superior sprint. He didn’t blame the Kenyans in ‘22 as much as saying both he and them hurt their own chances (which was true). There was nothing from Nordas saying Kessler ran the race he should have. Or that Beamish/Hocker handled the larger field and showed better top-end. It came out as more as excuse-making and not giving credit at all than Jakob does imo.

Nordas would never been able to run to the front like Kessler did. He is to slow. As Gjert I said: It was poorly executed by Narve. Though he will be one of the medalcontenders in Paris. This time he should have given the credit to those who ran better. It was deep frustration.

Exactly. Only 6 people in the 800 and that had way more contact, pushing, and traffic than the 1500. Even the 3000 was worse with that one guy getting lapped twice. The problem for Nordas was the slow pace, not the number of people on the track.