I question this guy because until these championships he was a journeyman, a mediocrity at this level. No one here picked him to win and certainly not with a crushing finish over much higher-rated athletes.
The indoors are an inferior competition to the outdoors. 4th reinforces that he made no significant impression. If you want to cite the indoors for demonstrating talent you could contrast him with Geordie Beamish who won the title against a good field, beating Hocker among others. In this sport I've learned not to trust nobodies coming from nowhere to win the biggest titles.
But Nadar won it with a somewhat "pedestrian" (or at least not "amazing") time. It's not like he blew by a field of multiple contenders running 3:29 pace. So it's really not that odd or surprising.
It wasn't a 3:50 race. 3:34 in muggy conditions with a 1:48 last 800 is not "pedestrian". It's in fact the same time El G ran in Athens in '04. As for "blowing by" better runners - he absolutely did that.
Don't know if this is the fastest, but I timed ca. 1:48.2 last 800m for Nader.
Jakob ran the same in the semfinal in Budapest 2023 in a 3:34.98 race. His last lap was 51.6? when gesturing to the crowd and easing up in the end.
Some has claimed that El-G ran 1:46.?? in his 2004 OG 1500m win beating Lagat narrowly.
I haven´t checked if it is true.
Jakob's semi-final in Budapest was really impressive. One of the few bursts of speed we've see from hims (as opposed to keeping a evenly hot pace most of/the entire way)
The race analysis in IAAF's page is incorrect (it says his final lap was 50.63, which is a bit too fast), but his final splits in that race were around: 1:48.7, 52.1, 38.6, 25.5, 12.6/12.7 (3:34.98)
And that despite the fact that:
1. He didn't really accelerate until the 1250m mark
2. He ran the last bend i lane 2, so he had to run some extra meters
3. He showboated and milked applause from the spectators in the final stretch. He could've gone faster.
Jakob has speed and a good kick, contratry to what so many people are saying.
I question this guy because until these championships he was a journeyman, a mediocrity at this level. No one here picked him to win and certainly not with a crushing finish over much higher-rated athletes.
Wrong. In my team we picked Isaac to medal.
1:43/3:29 is not mediocrity. You are mediocrity.
1:43/3:29 was only achieved this year - at age 26. He was 1:45 last year. He is way faster than he was a couple of years ago. The fact that no one knew who he was has shown he has made no mark in the sport till now.
I was in the UK Team because of the Marathon, and when we spoke about the chances for 1500m I suggested to control Nader, because I was in touch with his coach (the Spanish Enrique Pascual) and I knew his ability in case of tactical races. In this case, he's favourite by the fact to be short of stature, morphology that can allow to find the best choices during the last 300m when there are a lot of runners trying to increase the space, and for athetes able to run with high frequency is easier to find the right position withou being boxed.
This attitude is not enough in case of fast race, but Nader ran in 1'43"86 and in 3'29"27, showing he is one of the best in the world in any kind of race.
What is interesting is his PB in 10 km on road, ran this year : 28'01", showing that a high level of aerobic power can be the best support for the improving the specific speed endurance, giving the athlete the possibility to develop more training in the specific area.
But one thing I don't understand : the fact tat the stronest athletes accepted races very slow, risking to give opportunity of victory to many athletes who, with a race a little bit faster, couldn't be a factor in the last lap. This didn't influenced the final positions in 10000m, since the medallists had all a wide range from 1500m till HM, showing that working for long distances combining long fast run and short tests is the winning system (Jimmy Gressier Gold medal 3'32"71, 7'30"18 indoor, 12'54"92, 26'55"67 and 59'45", Yomif Kejelcha 3'31"25, 7'23"64, 12'38"95, 26'31"01 and 57'30" that was WR, Andreas Almgren 1'45"59, 3'32"00, 7'31"42, 12'44"27, 26'52"87 and 59'23"), but of sure was the factor of the elimination of Habz and Jakob in the first round of 1500m, and of the victory of Beamish in 3000 steeple.
Because they know that whoever takes it out becomes the sacrificial lamb. Yeah, Kerr (or Tim C, or Laros, etc) could go out at 3:30 pace and burn off half the field, but there's still probably 4-5 guys who will be with him as the bell goes, and they won't have done any work. The front runner might hold on for a silver or bronze, but it gives up the gold from the opening lap. No one has been able to front run a win since 2019. If Jakob can't do it, then I can't see how anyone else can.
The indoors are an inferior competition to the outdoors. 4th reinforces that he made no significant impression. If you want to cite the indoors for demonstrating talent you could contrast him with Geordie Beamish who won the title against a good field, beating Hocker among others. In this sport I've learned not to trust nobodies coming from nowhere to win the biggest titles.
You are the nobody. Isaac is a 1:43 guy. This was the perfect race for him. But yout comment is to be expected. Tall poppy syndrome.
As I said, all his significant improvements - including his 1:43 from 1:45 last year - have come this year. Till 2025 he was a journeyman. It's always a "perfect race" for an athlete who somehow finds another level. But how he has done so in the last year is the question.
Great to see coach Canova posting again and adding some intelligent points. It would be great if letsrun had a feature where we could be notified when someone of some importance/intelligence posts as I would have missed this post if I actually had a life.
Yeah I lean toward being in agreement with the observer here. In a race missing several big players and going 2:00 through 800, Nader winning isn’t that weird a result.
He won the Oslo DL mile this year. He made the Worlds final back in 2023. He lowered his PBs to 1:43.86 and 3:29.37 this year. Except for the DL final in Zurich, he’s placed top-4 in every 1500/mile he’s run since placing 4th at World Indoors. He’s consistently beaten most of the other finalists this season. Any objective ranking would have him top-10 on the season (World Athletics’s system has him at #8, prior to today’s gold). In my last prediction, I had him 4th behind Laros-Kerr-Wightman.
Riva, Farken, Ben, Pihlstrom, Gourley, Tshte, Coscoran winning would all have been a lot more surprising and inexplicable.
Credit to Nader for taking his opportunity.
Give me a break. You are post-event analyzing to make yourself sound smarter than you are. You are just as surprised as everyone that Nader won and you are too in denial to admit it, so you have to cherry pick data to make the outcome fit some kind of imaginary storyline. This was a surprise victory and you are trying to make it seem less surprising. Nice try.
I felt no surprise when Nader won. I understand that sometimes Nils Schumann, Yusuf Saad Kamel or Jimmy Gressier win world championships. With so many favorites out of the race and nobody left to push the pace, I knew a “weird” result was a distinct possibility. And for all the reasons I listed above, Nader winning wasn’t that weird.
Here I’m striking a similar tone after Nader won in Oslo:
I get you ready for the 5000 here:https://www.letsrun.com/news/2025/06/americans-nico-young-and-graham-blanks-are-ready-to-race-in-5000m-world-record-attempt-in-oslo/PS. We'll do a live reaction show when the meet is over at...
Wow. So many controversies and so many favourites GONE. Here is my updated prediction for the final now:1. Kerr2. Laros 3. Wightman4. R. Cheuriyot5. Nader6. T. Cheuriyot7. Philstrom8. Ben 9. Koech10. Gourley11. Tshi*e (gets c...
You’ll have to take my word for it since for some reason I posted under “Harvey Jablonski” but it reeks of me. Actually I got all of the top-6 right, in scrambled order, except for Josh Kerr.
1:43/3:29 was only achieved this year - at age 26. He was 1:45 last year. He is way faster than he was a couple of years ago. The fact that no one knew who he was has shown he has made no mark in the sport till now.
Could it be possible that someone has been training suboptimally for a long time and only a year ago managed to find the perfect way to train for them? Yes or no.
1:43/3:29 was only achieved this year - at age 26. He was 1:45 last year. He is way faster than he was a couple of years ago. The fact that no one knew who he was has shown he has made no mark in the sport till now.
Could it be possible that someone has been training suboptimally for a long time and only a year ago managed to find the perfect way to train for them? Yes or no.
So far, all the men's distance races have gone slow, and every time we've gotten an unexpected winner.
Will the guys in the 5k learn their lesson?
Also, both Laros and Hocker returning for that distance...don't write them off yet.
Simpleton, there are always wise men who say that guys who can run fast 1500s should "make sure it's a fast race." Love how you all so easily dismiss the overwhelming benefits of drafting for the rest of the field.
Could it be possible that someone has been training suboptimally for a long time and only a year ago managed to find the perfect way to train for them? Yes or no.
No. There is no magic formula.
Yes, there is. An athlete absolutely can get things right after doing them wrong for a time. Since you never where an athlete, you wouldn't know that.
Interesting race. It’s crazy that it didn’t even seem that messy despite 14 starters and an easy start. I knew that both Nader and Wightman had finishing chops, but neither had impressed in a couple of months. Reynold getting bronze was unsurprising. If anything, he might place higher if it were rerun. He’s fixed his positioning issues somewhat but I think was a little off his best on the day.
I just want to chime in and say what a pathetic performance from Laros. He had perfect position and the best kick in the field. He absolutely choked it away.