Lutkenhaus looks so easy wow. I'm a little worried about the sleeve on his calf though. Hopefully he's not running through an injury is just a little sore.
Lutkenhaus: Is "Poisoned" by his own 1:44.29. He arrives at the final with "Neural-Flat" legs. Attaoui: Is "Vibrantly Fresh" after a "Monastic" calibration. The Verdict: Lutkenhaus won the "Neural Shock" battle today, but he has "given the rope" to Attaoui for tomorrow.
Attaoui it will be interesting if he doesn't medal or gets bronze here how he approaches 2026-7. Should he weigh a move up to the 1500? Unfortunately, his preferred tactic is simply useless against Djamel Sedjati (career record 1-5) who starts ahead of him and kicks better. Then there's no reason to believe he'd ever beat Wanyonyi or Arop when it matters most as he's giving them far too many meters of space. Lutkenhaus is young and on a trajectory to be better than him. He has far better 400m speed. The same could be said for Hoey if he can keep himself together.. Attaoui trains in a group that does a lot of mileage/threshold, he might not want to wait too long if he's destined for a bunch of non-medaling championships like Marcin Lewandowski did for instance.
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I only see Crestan as the one to take it out. Maybe Bol being in lane 6 but not Clay, Attoui or Bloudek.
Have to believe it will be Crestan and it's going to take a 24-low probably to get a clear lead. What will be interesting is how fast that second lap goes. Crestan is a vet, and will probably slow it down instead of keeping the pace going like the Pole did. That makes it harder for Cooper to have established position and a good trip. I'd say Cooper should be comfortable taking the lead as early as 450 in if it's getting too messy in the traffic.
I only see Crestan as the one to take it out. Maybe Bol being in lane 6 but not Clay, Attoui or Bloudek.
Have to believe it will be Crestan and it's going to take a 24-low probably to get a clear lead. What will be interesting is how fast that second lap goes. Crestan is a vet, and will probably slow it down instead of keeping the pace going like the Pole did. That makes it harder for Cooper to have established position and a good trip. I'd say Cooper should be comfortable taking the lead as early as 450 in if it's getting too messy in the traffic.
I think Crestan will go to the front as he has done in the heat and the semi. And I think he will go fast. In my opinion Crestan and Cooper are the only ones who have not been all in yet.
I think Cooper should stay behind until 250 or 150m out.
I could see Crestan and Cooper run away from everyone else in the final.
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A side note: The English commentators were impressed that a 17 year old managed to qualify for the final! Hello, he and Crestan are the clear gold favorites . The English have a tendency to only see their own compratiots (as the American posters have tendency to underestimate other countries runners).
I don’t think we should comment on body shapes. You need to be strong and not super skinny to do well at the 800m.
She was definitely tired but that’s part of going through the rounds. You need to manage that. So I would say a training error and racing/pacing error. She’s been around long enough to be better at this.