To everyone defending Kerr - how would you feel if every athlete who qualified never raced again until the Olympics? This is terrible for the sport. Imagine NBA benching all their starters as soon as they clinch playoffs. Terrible product
Just imagine if he gets injured/ill and has to withdraw from the Olympics. Hope we get to see the duel, but would be kind of amusing and serve him right.
He literally set a world record, an area record, and won a global championship already this season. Also he is the defending world champion over 1500. The guy you want ranked ahead of him lost the last 2 times they faced off. Where else should he be ranked but first?
Why should Kerr be ranked as first? Jakob has lost narrowly twice to Kerr the last 2 seasons and in the same period beaten him twice rather easily running away the last 100m.
I myself stated that Kerr was the top miler after the Bowerman Mile 2024 where his mile time indicated a high 3:27 in the 1500m (if somebody else had taken over from the pacemakers).
But that has changed now where Jakob has run 3:26.73.
And Kerr ran some mediocre 800 meters at the UK trials.
By the way:
Kerr is ranked 6 in the 1500m (including the mile and the 2000m) in IAAF´s ranking system and Jakob is ranked 1 for 107 weeks so far. Kerr has been ranked 3 for 40 weeks possibly since his WC gold last year and until recently.
So you are telling me that all he needs to run so far to be the “best in the world” is an Oregon relays 800, Pre Mile, and the UK champs 800m where he fell, and he is somehow the best 1500m runner in the world?
Dude, you literally need to wait just 3 weeks to get a definite answer to this question. If he wins the Olympics, he is a champion, end of story. Why the trolling?
To everyone defending Kerr - how would you feel if every athlete who qualified never raced again until the Olympics? This is terrible for the sport. Imagine NBA benching all their starters as soon as they clinch playoffs. Terrible product
The Olympics starts in a few weeks. He’s just had a reduced race schedule.
It’s not a permanent thing. Athletes are being a bit more cautious this year. Apart from some (Jakob). It’s just a different tactic.
He literally set a world record, an area record, and won a global championship already this season. Also he is the defending world champion over 1500. The guy you want ranked ahead of him lost the last 2 times they faced off. Where else should he be ranked but first?
Why should Kerr be ranked as first? Jakob has lost narrowly twice to Kerr the last 2 seasons and in the same period beaten him twice rather easily running away the last 100m.
I myself stated that Kerr was the top miler after the Bowerman Mile 2024 where his mile time indicated a high 3:27 in the 1500m (if somebody else had taken over from the pacemakers).
But that has changed now where Jakob has run 3:26.73.
And Kerr ran some mediocre 800 meters at the UK trials.
By the way:
Kerr is ranked 6 in the 1500m (including the mile and the 2000m) in IAAF´s ranking system and Jakob is ranked 1 for 107 weeks so far. Kerr has been ranked 3 for 40 weeks possibly since his WC gold last year and until recently.
800m is not really Kerr’s distance - how many 800m has Jakob done recently so we can compare? And he was tripped in the finishing straight. He didn’t look like he was doing too badly…
Jakob runs good times in paced DL meets. We will have to see how he runs without pacemakers. Then Kerr’s predicted 3.27 from you (800m performance doesn’t change the mile performance) and Jakob’s paced DL 3.26.73 performance don’t seem to far off each other? Who can pace better? Who will be better down the home straight?
So you are telling me that all he needs to run so far to be the “best in the world” is an Oregon relays 800, Pre Mile, and the UK champs 800m where he fell, and he is somehow the best 1500m runner in the world?
Jakob feels comfortable racing often and focuses on records. Josh has a system to peak for big championship races and he's clearly focused on medals. I think Jakob sees medals as a given as long as he's proving he's the fastest. Jakob is better for the fans but if Josh can keep winning when it most counts like this then it's his name we will keep seeing in the history books.
You try to make it sound as Kerr consistently peaks well for big championships and Jakob don´t but that is completely wrong.
How did he peak in Doha 2019, Tokyo 2021, Eugene 2022, Commonwealth 2022 COMPARED to Jakob? Only time he peaked better was when Jakob became ill in Budapest.
indoor 3k is not impressive. Not long ago people were saying that Indoor medals were not that impressive due to majority of the competition not appearing there. Crazy how people turn their opinions around. 8:00 indoors is good except for the fact that he was paced for 90% of it. Would have probably run a few seconds slower. Also, I am talking about outdoors, not indoors.
2k and 2mile WRs are not impressive because he'll never win medals in those distances. Every WR is paced btw.
Both Wightman´s and Kerr´s WC gold was paced.........by Jakob
When did I mention those distances? Those performances are way better than his 8:00 2 miles and were given LESS pacing, but that is besides the point. Kerr has not shown that he can regularly win medals and is being overly arrogant for a guy who dodges all of his competition in the main season.
Kerr just started winning last year, but Jakob hasn't beaten him since then... he needs to claim a global gold again to consider himself the best. Fast times when it doesn't count the most don't make you the best. Sorry you are hurt by this fact.
Fast times don´t count?! What about the 1500m WR? Which he very well could get later in the season. (The mile WR seems to be in his pocket already).
Exactly. Jake Wightman won WC 1500 over Jakob. But would you consider him "one of the best"? That is not how it works in T&F, no other sports like triathlon or cycling. You can win one big race – that is great, and very admirable – however, if you fall off the face of the earth later or are a one-hit wonder, then you are in no way "the best".
Well, in addition to his World Championship (WC) gold medal at 1500m from Budapest, Kerr did win an Olympic bronze medal at 1500m in Tokyo, plus an indoor gold at 3000m in Birmingham. Maybe you only consider gold medals as hits, but I think many here, if not most, would consider any Olympic or WC medal a hit, even if from an indoor WC which tend to be less hotly contested. So I think it is derogatory to call Kerr a "one-hit wonder" as he has a clutch of global medals.
Jakob´s silver medals are clearly considered as a loss and a big failure from the many haters here, including most of the British patriots.
He won the World Indoor 3000m in dominant fashion against Yared Nuguse and the Prefontaine Mile over Jakob in 3:45. I would like to see him race more but he knows that the Olympics are a legacy-defining event, so he is minimizing training disruptions to win another gold. It certainly worked for him last year at World's.
Jakob gets a sore throat because he typically trains and races to the edge of overreaching Races give him confidence but doesn’t change the fact he’s giving away speed side capability to Kerr and I think Jakob he was sandbagging a bit at Pre but Kerr took him with relative ease
I think the big breakthrough for Kerr was years of work followed by a bump in quality volume Bur in the end nutrition and recovery improvements got him the reserves to handle it all
Not much point in racing when you can run 800 reps at 1:52 is there? And Jakob has less pressure because only a few 3:30 1500 runners in the 5000m. Still my hunch is he’ll get out kicked in both. Just wish Whightman could be in the 1500 for that last 150m too.
Nothing this season has indicated that Wightman would have been a factor even if he had run and qualified in the UK 1500m trials. At best he would have been at the level of Gourley and you perhaps? saw how Jakob handled Gourley in the 1500m final In Rome.
Why should Kerr be ranked as first? Jakob has lost narrowly twice to Kerr the last 2 seasons and in the same period beaten him twice rather easily running away the last 100m.
I myself stated that Kerr was the top miler after the Bowerman Mile 2024 where his mile time indicated a high 3:27 in the 1500m (if somebody else had taken over from the pacemakers).
But that has changed now where Jakob has run 3:26.73.
And Kerr ran some mediocre 800 meters at the UK trials.
By the way:
Kerr is ranked 6 in the 1500m (including the mile and the 2000m) in IAAF´s ranking system and Jakob is ranked 1 for 107 weeks so far. Kerr has been ranked 3 for 40 weeks possibly since his WC gold last year and until recently.
800m is not really Kerr’s distance - how many 800m has Jakob done recently so we can compare? And he was tripped in the finishing straight. He didn’t look like he was doing too badly…
Jakob runs good times in paced DL meets. We will have to see how he runs without pacemakers. Then Kerr’s predicted 3.27 from you (800m performance doesn’t change the mile performance) and Jakob’s paced DL 3.26.73 performance don’t seem to far off each other? Who can pace better? Who will be better down the home straight?
I think Kerr could have run high 3:27 converted in the Bowerman Mile if he hasn´t done the frontrunning after the pacemakers dropped out. But doing that - as Jakob almost always do when he runs his fast times - makes his Bowerman Mile worth only about 3:28.65. So Jakob is almost 2 seconds faster than Kerr run in paced races under equal conditions.
Do you agree that Kerr´s only chance to win over an in peak shape Jakob in Paris is if Jakob front run for most of the race so the difference between their PBs gets eliminated?
Heated thread! What are the odds on Kerr vs Ing? Personally I get the feeling Ing will finally win it this time. He's just in such amazing shape already
Drafting is what cost Ing the last victory vs Kerr I really think. I just think he's in better shape and will be smarter this time. He needs to pick up the pace more then he did halfway through and burn the sting out of Kerr's kick.
To answer your question though I don't think there is one way either can win cause they are both in such amazing shape now and especially Ing
This post was edited 3 minutes after it was posted.
Also if Ing just front runs the last two laps but doesn't pick up the pace enough I can see him getting outkicked again. I just hope he races smarter cause you do want to see the one picking up the pace win it
Kerr is the defending champion but prior to that I don't think he had ever beaten Jakob in a race. And for a guy who doesn't race often he was beaten by Jakob 10+ times at that point that's YEARS of losing. People are on here saying he's a tactical genius as if he's been great for a long time. Prior to earning that bronze medal no one would have been majorly surprised if he didn't even make the 1500m final. I think there's something to be said for trash talking and how it can be positive for the sport but winning one race did not warrant the amount of talk coming from him. Wait your turn. Jakob was a medal threat as a teenager and he's been highly ranked for a long time. He's never trashed anyone in the media prior to this if I'm not mistaken.
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