funny to see all this moaning and complaining about nothing, namely, what is the setting like, is the telecast good enough, etc. what do you care about anything other than seeing some good track?
The 1500m had a great finish after Andrews failed to follow Lopez (who may have gone out a bit fast in 55-56), so he was not getting any drafting advantage and not going fast enough to be in contention for the standard. The pace was really slowing down in the third lap after 1:55 at 800m, but the key was that pretty much the whole field was bunched together to the bell lap, which was hit around 2:43, meaning that they had to go around 53 to hit 3:36. Blankenship burst into the lead and on the homestretch it was him just ahead of Engels, who couldn't quite get there, and Merber had an explosive kick but ended up losing to Blankenship by something like 6 one-thousandths of a second. Great finish.
To get the standard, they need, obviously, to stick to the pacer and not defer to the U.S. champion unless he's really going for it. Andrews is a racer, not a time trialer, so he is best suited saving some for the finish. He should get his time in Monaco. The others can get sub 3:36 still with the right mentality.