Official 2014 Lausanne DL Discussion Thread

lol

great technique there on the pole vault

Oh Mercy, Mercy me....

Cherono does it to Genze again. Terrific race by Mercy, tactical and very physical race and she got boxed in and shoved at least 3 times I counted. Still kept her cool, slipped away and out kicked Dibby with room to spare.

I'm telling you this girl is someone to watch. She's not a flash in the pan.

That's my point sub 2, winning in 1:58 mid is comparatively a way worse performance than women perform in all other running events.

1:58 is worth a 4:06 1500 or 8:50s 3K. Do those sound like competitive DL caliber times to you?

Eunice is quietly having a very dominant year. So smooth and confident out there.

Top 10 in the steeple were Kenyan

Diet Snapple wrote:

1:58 is worth a 4:06 1500 or 8:50s 3K. Do those sound like competitive DL caliber times to you?

Cherono won the 3k today in 8:50.24. So yes!

This is actually a very good point. Women running sub-50 and sub-4:00 should indicate way better than 1:58/1:59 for top women.

How do you figure a 1:58 is worth a 4:06? Seems to me MANY more 1500m runners break 4:06 than 800m runners break 1:58. The last 8 years or so it seems the women's 800 is dominated by a 1:55 type (Jelimo, then Semenya)... with everyone else coming through 1:57 - 1:59. I guess Sum will be our next outlier in this event? Like you, I wish a 1:55 type of runner wouldn't be an outlier.

Diet Snapple wrote:

That's my point sub 2, winning in 1:58 mid is comparatively a way worse performance than women perform in all other running events.

1:58 is worth a 4:06 1500 or 8:50s 3K. Do those sound like competitive DL caliber times to you?

looks like the reggae sauce is all gone now

Centro is still working on tactics, as we can see. He went behind Souleiman in Oslo and finished poorly. Here he was too far back. The happy medium is somewhere in between. He can't learn this racing in the US, and needs to hit all the DL races.

Yohan Blake had war paint on his face for the 200 but got crushed.

19.84 for Alonso Edward of Panama.

Ashmeade 20.06, Lemaitre 20.11, Blake 20.48

Bondarenko WR attempts in HJ

kfneloirown wrote:

How do you figure a 1:58 is worth a 4:06? Seems to me MANY more 1500m runners break 4:06 than 800m runners break 1:58.

The last 8 years or so it seems the women's 800 is dominated by a 1:55 type (Jelimo, then Semenya)... with everyone else coming through 1:57 - 1:59. I guess Sum will be our next outlier in this event? Like you, I wish a 1:55 type of runner wouldn't be an outlier.

Diet Snapple wrote:

That's my point sub 2, winning in 1:58 mid is comparatively a way worse performance than women perform in all other running events.

1:58 is worth a 4:06 1500 or 8:50s 3K. Do those sound like competitive DL caliber times to you?

According to IAAF tables 1:58 is worth 4:04 mid or 8:45 so I was off by a bit. The point stands however that womens 800m times are proportionately wayyy slower than the other events and seem to be consistently so and I'm just curious as to why this is. If Sum is an "outlier" she's really more of a best of the worst kind of outlier in a very weak event.

Birech dominated the steeple.

2:42 1stkm and by halfway Birech was only guy with rabbit.

He ran alone the second half.

Conseslus Kipruto returned from injury and got 2nd.

The 800 is a tricky event. It always looks weak without one or two outliers.

Remember the men's 800 between Kipketer's retirement and the rise of Kaki/Rudisha? Wasn't Webb(!) ranked 2nd in the world one year with 1:43.xx? And then you have Ramzi winning the World Champs in '05 - he never broke 1:44 in his entire career. The 2007 World Champs race was won in 1:47!!!

Marta L wrote:

The 800 is a tricky event. It always looks weak without one or two outliers.

Remember the men's 800 between Kipketer's retirement and the rise of Kaki/Rudisha? Wasn't Webb(!) ranked 2nd in the world one year with 1:43.xx? And then you have Ramzi winning the World Champs in '05 - he never broke 1:44 in his entire career. The 2007 World Champs race was won in 1:47!!!

That's a fair point. I guess you have Jelimo who ran 1:54 flat but that's going back 6-7 years ago now. Just seems with all the stud 1500m runners running several seconds under 4 and consistent sub 50 400m women there would be at least one or two 1:55 types every year.

From reading this thread thus far, I get the feeling that if Centro had run a quicker time in today's Lausanne DL meet, his decision to skip USA Nationals would have been justified. It seems as if:

Skipping USA's + 3:32.70 1500 = Bad for the sport

Now let's suppose that Centrowitz ran well (maybe a 3:30.xx or even just a PR), in that event we would all be abuzz over this performance, which although would not expiate his absence at USA's in anyway, would completely overshadow the fact that he skipped the NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP of his home country in order to obtain said time.

When discussing many of the major meets we've seen so far this season we consistently ask: "what about the sport?", and it seems this has come up again due to Centro running an overall poor tactical race. The fact is, however, that even PRing today would not be good for the sport. His absence at USA Nationals hurt the sport of Track and Field - and his performance, regardless of the result, would not change that.

1:58 = 4:01, but yeah the W800 is a bit "off" without the EU Pharma Team pushing things along.

It is not Centro's responsibility to act in "the best interest of the sport".

It is in his best interest to act for himself.

Why should he care about the expectations of fans whom he has never met have placed upon him? Answer: he shouldn't.

Edit: "EE Pharma Team"

Groucho Mark wrote:

1:58 = 4:01, but yeah the W800 is a bit "off" without the EU Pharma Team pushing things along.