Bring out the brooms: Kenya sweeps the women’s distances. Odira STUNS the world 1:54.62 as Keely gets the bronze

One more thing to add.

Andrews gets a lot of accusations around here because of her "huge" drop in the 5000m. She dropped from 14:43.36 (1196 WA points) in 2023 to 14:254.37 (1231 WA points) this year. That is a 35-point drop in two years as opposed to a 30-point drop in one year.

I'm not one to throw around accusations and I personally think that probably at least 95% of all pros are clean, including Andrews, Hurta, Mu, Wilson, and Wiley whom I mentioned above, but the accusations are extremely biased here. If you are going to accuse Andrews, you need to accuse Hurta.

Btw - Odira’s page at WA shows a 4 second improvement this year. If that type type of improvement came from any (white) European or American the usuals at Letsrun would be screaming for them to be crucified.

Cousin - it was explained many times - stop listening to ignorant American commentators.

As to Mary Moraa, I saw her tactics as planned, knowing she had had a poor season, this was her contribution. Her cousin and Odira knew what she was going to do, so laid off. While this may sound silly to self-centered Americans, it isn't to other people. They had 3 kenyans in the final, trying to get two medals. Sarah wasn't too far off getting the other one.

LOL, you actually have to come back from something for this.

It was Sage's first USA team. Perhaps most improved.

The way Sarah finished to take fourth from Butt-Hurta was stunning.

And all the Kenyans were in a collective hug at the end (and Mary stayed trackside to cheer the SFs like crazy): I really do believe that they knew what Mary's tactics were.

Love to see Keely getting fooled by beautiful Mary 🤭

Keely might jave been “fooled” but calling Mary beautiful is really stretching it. 😛

YES They are Sisters

But the thing with Mary is you can't not go with her because, on her day, she's shown she's capable of running off and winning it all herself. If Keely had ignored her, she would've probably controlled the race and unleashed her own not-shabby kick with everyone else at the end. My point is, you can't just let Mary go, because you don't know which version of her it is.

She's a cousin who's like a sister if that makes sense. I think she was raised in Mary's household. Very common in Kenya.

To be fair, Rojo. Moraa’s 27-31-31-29 style running is really effective. She’s beaten how many runners with it? This is racing not trying to PB. Her problem is she doesn’t have a counter if someone like Keely tries to push for the lead. Instead she ends up losing the slow middle 400 (because she has to push during it) that you need to recover. But it was almost assuredly discussed by the Kenyan squad to let Mary do Mary and pick off the Brits later. Had Keely just tucked behind Mary, who knows how it would’ve played out. It isn’t so easy to surge by Mary at 300 to go if you’ve let her jog 300 meters. It might end in similar fashion for Keely wasting her move too early.

Just adding my thoughts to the discussion...

As said earlier, on the BBC Jenny Meadows wasn't surprised by the result and as the poster said, Hodgkinson had missed a number of phases of training, including speedwork, so they knew she was vulnerable to a kick finish. I think you could see from Keely's reaction after the race that she was disappointed but not angry/mad/sad, and in her interview she was quite open & honest about coming here with some doubts.

As for Odira, the accusations are not because 'she is black skinned' it's because she is Kenyan. And as has also been mentioned numerous times in this thread, Kenya has a problem with doping, period. Not a month goes by without the AIU announcing another big-name Kenyan bust. The Kenyan sweep across the women's middle & long distance is suspicious in today's climate, and anyone who thinks otherwise is naive.

On Mary Moraa, clearly her tactics were to disrupt Hodgkinson, and it worked. Don't just look at the pace, look at the fact that Moraa was not letting Keely pass, and it seems every time there might be a little gap for Keely, Moraa closed it off again. It wasn't exactly huge effort on Keely's part to try and pass, but trying it enough times had some impact on her, be it mental, physical or just tactical.

Regarding GHB, she may be 32, but as said on previous threads, she had a long break from athletics, where she competed at the elite level in duathlon, building strength in cycling. She did not just disappear into obscurity, she remained elite-level fit. Because of this, physically she is 'younger'. I really don't think she is doping (and don't forget, she is in the same training group as Keely..).

On Hurta-Klecker et al, the fast times here are due to the usual: better shoes, championship performances/peaking, and someone taking it out at an honest pace. Occasionally the stars align & everyone in a race runs quick e.g. women's 400m here. It is what it is.

no kid for Bell.

Shes either the most talented female middle-distance athlete to have literally ever existed

or

doped

Again it’s fair to accuse Odira on behalf of her nationality. But it’s also fair to consider her own specific history and associations. Which are with a reputable UK-based agency (Moyo) not known for taking shortcuts, and an under-the-radar coach (Jacinta Murugari) who was a good athlete without a record. There’s also the minimum testing requirements for a Kenyan athlete to compete at Worlds, unlike road athletes who test positive frequently at events or in probably some of their first tests after entering the testing pool.

She is a lot hotter than Parker "Flatchest and buttless" Valby.

No you wouldn't. 1:54 is a time that barely gets touched. We went years without any non-DSD woman breaking 1:55 and now three have done it in one race. It's extraordinary. It's believable from Keely because this is now her third time running clean under 1:55. But those question marks will hang over Odira and GHB. You can rationalise this all you want, but dropping 4 seconds from an 800 PB in a single year, to run possibly the third fastest time ever by a non-DSD athlete, at the age of 26, is at the very least remarkable. As Mo Katir showed us, if it looks too good to be true, then it probably is.

Hardly a teen phenom. She ran 2:14 at 18 and 2:11 at 19. Georgia Hunter Bell ran 2:08 at 15. Keely ran 1:55 at 18.

Not to mention that Odira might be older than her stated age.