IMHO, his 33.05 should remain a WB and the recent decision by WA to upgrade the 300m hurdles to a WR eligible event is plain ridiculous, as the event is too rarely run. The WA website doesn’t even include the 300mh in its seasons’ and all-time top list.
Good run for faith, she has zero shot at sub 4, seems like something that Nike might have been pushing, as she is not in that sort of shape right now, even getting in better shape as the season goes on 600 more meters is unrealistic
I totally agree. As much as the sub4 attempt is ridiculous and detrimental to our sport, as much as today’s performance on the 1000m was quite remarkable.
Publicity stunts under non-standard conditions like the marathon sub2 and mile sub4 shouldn’t be given so much attention.
Faith easily has a shot at the sub-4 attempt, it's not until June, and the entire premise is using illegal methods such as spikes, pacing formations and who knows what else. Her best 800-1000 "real" pace could easily be extended another 600+.
But it won't mean that much if she gets it, and agree it's a publicity stunt more than anything else.
-Sick kick by Chebet, both a ridiculous change of speed and then sustaining it pretty dang well with 13.5 on the straight
-Great run by Tinch, as he starts to look more like he did at his breakout point, the vets Roberts and Holloway are struggling
-Shericka looked like she did in 2023, which is to say washed
-So far, not so good for this Coleman coaching switch, gotta see something better next week, if you're going to skip indoors, this isn't the early returns anyone wants to see
-I don't get Kipyegon not going with the pacemakers who went out on pace and not too fast. If for the sub-4 attempt, they set the lights for 60 and she runs a 61+ it's going to both look silly and kill off the "drafting science" that delivers her 6 seconds. It's not a new thing either, she often doesn't go with rabbits. She constantly trains with a personal male pacer, so maybe she just needs him to be the first pacemakers. Nike should listen to the athlete because Faith freelancing is not going to help things.
-I'm pretty down on El Bakkali, I think last year might've been it. Koech ran a tentative race, but he's probably ahead of El B fitness-wise, and he's traditionally a slow-starter. Firewu obviously took him down pretty easily. Edmund Serem is coming. His brother Amos might be the best of all of the challengers, though the fact that he wasn't here or at Adidas' event might indicate some injury issues after a respectable 2K XC race in February. We do get a rerun next week, so we'll see. But if anythiing I'd expect a 1-2-3 from Girma, Firewu and Koech more than El Bakkali winning.
-Sick kick by Chebet, both a ridiculous change of speed and then sustaining it pretty dang well with 13.5 on the straight
-Great run by Tinch, as he starts to look more like he did at his breakout point, the vets Roberts and Holloway are struggling
-Shericka looked like she did in 2023, which is to say washed
-So far, not so good for this Coleman coaching switch, gotta see something better next week, if you're going to skip indoors, this isn't the early returns anyone wants to see
-I don't get Kipyegon not going with the pacemakers who went out on pace and not too fast. If for the sub-4 attempt, they set the lights for 60 and she runs a 61+ it's going to both look silly and kill off the "drafting science" that delivers her 6 seconds. It's not a new thing either, she often doesn't go with rabbits. She constantly trains with a personal male pacer, so maybe she just needs him to be the first pacemakers. Nike should listen to the athlete because Faith freelancing is not going to help things.
-I'm pretty down on El Bakkali, I think last year might've been it. Koech ran a tentative race, but he's probably ahead of El B fitness-wise, and he's traditionally a slow-starter. Firewu obviously took him down pretty easily. Edmund Serem is coming. His brother Amos might be the best of all of the challengers, though the fact that he wasn't here or at Adidas' event might indicate some injury issues after a respectable 2K XC race in February. We do get a rerun next week, so we'll see. But if anythiing I'd expect a 1-2-3 from Girma, Firewu and Koech more than El Bakkali winning.
He ran 8:06 in April and you're down on him? He's incredibly experienced tactically and has the best close.
-Sick kick by Chebet, both a ridiculous change of speed and then sustaining it pretty dang well with 13.5 on the straight
-Great run by Tinch, as he starts to look more like he did at his breakout point, the vets Roberts and Holloway are struggling
-Shericka looked like she did in 2023, which is to say washed
-So far, not so good for this Coleman coaching switch, gotta see something better next week, if you're going to skip indoors, this isn't the early returns anyone wants to see
-I don't get Kipyegon not going with the pacemakers who went out on pace and not too fast. If for the sub-4 attempt, they set the lights for 60 and she runs a 61+ it's going to both look silly and kill off the "drafting science" that delivers her 6 seconds. It's not a new thing either, she often doesn't go with rabbits. She constantly trains with a personal male pacer, so maybe she just needs him to be the first pacemakers. Nike should listen to the athlete because Faith freelancing is not going to help things.
-I'm pretty down on El Bakkali, I think last year might've been it. Koech ran a tentative race, but he's probably ahead of El B fitness-wise, and he's traditionally a slow-starter. Firewu obviously took him down pretty easily. Edmund Serem is coming. His brother Amos might be the best of all of the challengers, though the fact that he wasn't here or at Adidas' event might indicate some injury issues after a respectable 2K XC race in February. We do get a rerun next week, so we'll see. But if anythiing I'd expect a 1-2-3 from Girma, Firewu and Koech more than El Bakkali winning.
He ran 8:06 in April and you're down on him? He's incredibly experienced tactically and has the best close.
Chebet was amazing. She looks to be unstoppable this year. I guess Faith might in the 5000, but Chebet is undoubtedly dominant. The rest of the meet was meh. Time to rest up for the weekend’s main event. Sawe in 2:01.45 and Hassan in 2:16:30.
Trying to analyze this last 200 from CHebet. Extremely impressive at 26.6.
14:27 for a runner of her caliber, I guess is roughly equivalent to a 13:00 mens race. give or take. a respectable time for a more tactical type race.
The 400 meters before that final 200 was run in around 67 seconds, which is roughly women's world record pace. So you could compare it to a 60.xx mens 400.
With the difference in men's and women's times being close 10%, that makes that 26.6 close to a 24 flat type time for men.
So what she just did, could be considered very similar to a man winning a 5000 in 13:00, with a 24 second final 200 which was preceded by a 60 second 400 right before it.
WOW.
not that men and women need to be compared. there are different physiologies at work there. I'm just trying to wrap my head around it. I watch way more men's racing, so I have a decent idea of what a finishing kick means, within the context of the type of race (final time, when they started winding up, etc.) I just don't have a good gauge for it in the women's races.
This post was edited 3 minutes after it was posted.
Good run for faith, she has zero shot at sub 4, seems like something that Nike might have been pushing, as she is not in that sort of shape right now, even getting in better shape as the season goes on 600 more meters is unrealistic
I totally agree. As much as the sub4 attempt is ridiculous and detrimental to our sport, as much as today’s performance on the 1000m was quite remarkable.
Publicity stunts under non-standard conditions like the marathon sub2 and mile sub4 shouldn’t be given so much attention.
I would tweak your argument a bit.
Those type events could be used to drum up interest in the sport by holding them in city centers like they do for the 150M straight track races races and the NYC mile runs.
I totally agree. As much as the sub4 attempt is ridiculous and detrimental to our sport, as much as today’s performance on the 1000m was quite remarkable.
Publicity stunts under non-standard conditions like the marathon sub2 and mile sub4 shouldn’t be given so much attention.
Faith easily has a shot at the sub-4 attempt, it's not until June, and the entire premise is using illegal methods such as spikes, pacing formations and who knows what else.
Actually not just Kipyegon but any top female runner would easily smash the 4’ barrier under non-ratifiable conditions, provided you push enough the non-standard conditions.
After all, Mike Boit ran 3:28.36 at the Queensland St. mile in Auckland back in 1983 and Christine Hughes of New Zealand won the women's mile the same year in 4:02.93. In 1993, 17-year-old schoolboy Craig Wheeler ran 3:24 at the Meltham mile on a steeper downhill road than the Auckland course. None of them claim to have broken some symbolic barriers though. Wheeler was a good regional athlete whose PB at the 1500m is 3:48, just one second faster than Kipyegon. So for sure, Kipyegon can smash the 4’ barrier provided sufficient non-legal parameters are optimised.
I appreciated Eliud Kipchoge a lot before his breaking2 exhibitions, but his 1:59 time realised under non-standard conditions will just devalue the achievement of the first man who will run the first real marathon under two hours. Same with Kipyegon, this is why I hope this sub 4 exhibition will fail.
He ran 8:06 in April and you're down on him? He's incredibly experienced tactically and has the best close.
8:06 is a relatively tactical steeple, don’t be misled by the time. It’s like a 7:34 3K if you work back from Girma’s WR. This is the exact type of race he used to win going away because of his speed. Firewu isn’t some world-beater, I see about 4-5 guys at that level and that’s a lot of guys queuing up…
I totally agree. As much as the sub4 attempt is ridiculous and detrimental to our sport, as much as today’s performance on the 1000m was quite remarkable.
Publicity stunts under non-standard conditions like the marathon sub2 and mile sub4 shouldn’t be given so much attention.
I would tweak your argument a bit.
Those type events could be used to drum up interest in the sport by holding them in city centers like they do for the 150M straight track races races and the NYC mile runs.
I do actually appreciate city events a lot.
What I dislike is the false narrative surrounding the breaking2 and now breaking4 exhibitions. You don’t really break any known barrier if you are the first to attempt an event under very specific circus-like conditions. I am sure a woman can break the 100m 10s barrier with sufficient artificial wind assistance (or a downhill course), but it does simply not make sense to claim you are breaking any record or human limit.
If Faith Kiypegon ran the pace she did tonight for the full mile, she'd run 4:00.08.
If she runs her pb (just .06 faster) for the full mile, she'd run 3:59.99.
Good luck.
Yeah and even though I was just able to watch the highlights of the race (a 1min clip), it's not like this was some kind of controlled TT effort where she was just gliding around at that pace light and could have obliterated it if she wanted to. She was flat to the boards in that final 100m - as you said, do they realize that this is essentially the pace she needs to run for another 609m? Based on that I'm not even sure they should try it at sub 4 pace - who knows what might happen in the final 300m if they did because it could get real ugly.
And okay it's her "opener" - it's still the end of April. It's not like this was the first indoor race on the calendar in January, coming out of full base training - she would have been on the track doing some kind of faster tempo work since the beginning of April minimum - as all the top pros are.
