If the Norweigans were smart they'd sacrifice Nordas as the pacemaker to Jakob to guarantee a win for Norway at the 1500m final. Josh Kerr can't outkick Jakob in a 3:26 or 3:27 race.
Why would Nordas consent to that?
Why would he not? OG are about country; not about the individual accomplishment.
Jakob raced like Kipyegon today. I've been calling for him to do that. Normally he screws around at the beginning of the race and needlessly sacrifices so much time and energy by being forced to loop the field and run extra meters in lane 2 or 3. In both of the world championship defeats he gave away more ground than the losing margin.
Today I knew it was a good sign when he started from the rail instead of his typical spot far on the outside. Maybe Jakob requested that. It forced him to accelerate off the line and grab the rail just behind the pacers.
From that point he was home free. It was just a matter of 3:26 what.
The world record will come later, whenever he's ready and requests that type of pace. He'll have to make sure it's exactly the same scenario...starting from the inside and making sure nobody bothers him to the railbird spot.
Nordas at the beginning remains almost comically inept at his off-the-line acceleration. Today he was a good 3 meters behind everyone else 50m in. And it was definitely not deliberate. So if you're asking him to do this (which they won't), he might not do a great job of it. He'd probably have to go into lactic as he'd put it from 200-400m to get to the front. I'd give him maybe 500m of hitting the sub-56.5s tempo from the front.
You have a point -Nordås said in post interviews that he felt he was all out in the first 200m (and that he almost always struggles with heavy feet in the beginning of a 1500m -strange…). But Jakob would never have allowed Narve to be the arranged pacer -I think Jakob rather would settle for the bronze or something to avoid a scenario like that..!
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Did you just start following track and field yesterday? Jakob had Tim Cheruiyot as his de facto pacer in that race.
Yes, except for the first 450 meters (Jakob had to run a wide bend, and draft the others). But rewatching that race (and how Jakob ran the home straight) -do you really think Jakob would have lost the race if Tim hadn’t acted like a pacer..?
Why would he not? OG are about country; not about the individual accomplishment.
Yes, as in every nation Norwegians can be stupidly nationalistically. But thankfully very seldom in athletics. -This sport is considered individual, and rightly very little about the country. I think Narve and Jakob would laugh all the way to the warm up field if someone in the Norwegian Athletics Federation suggested a strategy..!
And when it comes to coaches: Fifteen year old Jakob didn’t give a damn about his father and coach’s meaning about racing strategy, even if he knew he would be slammed afterwards (rewatch Team Ingebrigtsen TV series around Jakob’s first U20 WC appearance).
Jakob seems somewhat critical to El Guerrouj. One of the reasons may be this (although I can’t be totally sure): El Guerrouj was paced (multiple times) by countrymen in the champs. And (based on Jakob’s sayings) I don’t think he wants to win that way, meaning: He doesn’t want to win at all costs. And he would rather break a leg than being helped by his countryman Nordås, IMO…
Brian Komen is another interesting case. He is listed at 25, almost 26. Yet, he has no results at all on IAAF prior to 2023, when he emerged with a 3:33. Now he has knocked off another 5 seconds in a year. Where was all of the developing stage in his career? No 3:40s or 3:37s or 3:35s before last year? Now he drops 5 seconds in one year to a world all-time elite time in his mid-20s. Is there any plausible explanation?
1500 Metres 2023 3:33.84 Golęcin Stadion, Poznan (POL) 18 JUN 2023 2024 3:28.80 Stade Louis II, Monaco (MON) 12 JUL 2024
You forgot to mention he's Kenyan. Must be up to something.
The case for Jakob front running just got a lot better. True, no pacers for 2.5 laps would take a toll, but I am becoming convinced no one is better equipped to pay it in 2024.
At least, as important, it’s getting crowded behind him. That means second place is going to spend a lot of energy in the fight between Kerr, Cheruiyot, Nuguse and 1-2 brave others.
OK, grouping Kerr with the 3rd-place contingency is likely really unfair. But it’s true that he, and certainly all the others, would spend more inefficiencies on the way to starting up their kick. You could see this with Nuguse today. I think he could’ve run 3:28 low, maybe even 3:27 high if he hadn’t had to have fought with Cheruiyot. this, in spite of the fact that Jakob made it look like Nuguse ran a frustratingly slow race.
Well, anyone who wants a chance for silver, and certainly gold, better not let a 5m gap open up already by 800 like they did today.
You hint at why I'm starting to think it' not best for Jakob to make it a time trial. Get to the lead but 56-57 a lap may be good enough - occasionally slow it down, speed it up. You want people coming around Kerr, boxing him in, making Kerr run in lane 2 etc. If Jakob tries to time trial it, Kerr gets to run no extra distance and gets the perfect ride and rabbit much like Jessica Hull in Paris.
I wonder how much Jakob thinks about this. Seriously, it may not be as much as we think as how many humans in the history of the world have been in his spot - not many.
Rojo, good idea. This really could mess with Kerr. But somehow pace swings do not seem to fit Jakob’s style. He doesn’t play many games other than the I’m-in-your-head-and-gonna-beat-you-straight-up game.
It is going to be fun to see how this unfolds on race day. Can’t wait.
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Reason provided:
Clarified my meaning
And Lance was obviously doping. Everyone in cycling knew it. His connections to the Italian doctor made him suspicious to people like mercx. Jakob might be doping but it is not insanely obvious like it is with Lance.