So how do you beat Jakob in a championship 5,000m?

His weakest 100m is at the start so gap him then and don’t let him pass you.

Jakob knows who he is. He will time trial a 1500, becuase most of the field can beat him in an 800. He will do the opposite in the 5000, conserving energy until the final 3-4 laps, because nobody in the field can beat him in a 1500. It's that simple. As people have written, maybe -- just maybe -- some sort of team effort can bait him into disrupting his plans. But even that is a long shot.

Maybe most can, but only one managed to beat him at the WC and no one at the race that counted the most. Just one guy beats him by .24 seconds and some posters think he’s through as a 1500m runner. He hasn’t even turned 22 yet and he’s in the driver’s seat for the 2024 1500m. Running from the front in a WC or Olympic final is not a TT. There are no pacers or lights.

This is exactly what Katir did.

If Jakob is in the lead with 100m to go you already lost. It means he did his damage over that last 800-1,000 already and he is just going to cruise away from you in the final stretch. Katir is a 3:28/12:50 guy coming off a medal in the 1500m, there is nobody outside of Jakob with that combo of speed/strength and he had nothing.

That’s because he’s in an era of front runners. Tim C., Kipsang, and Stewie like to set a hard pace. This is perfect for Jakob. If he was in the 1500 final on 2016, with his current fitness, he likely finishes outside the top 6 unless HE pushes the pace.

That’s the point the poster was making. Once he goes up in distance, the slower the race, the better given the current crop of 5k competitors. Had he had Mo F. or others to content with, he would likely not be favorite.

As he moves up in distance, the stronger his competitors become. He has better top-end speed than Cheptegei but maybe he can’t run a 12:35 in a paced race. Of course he would have pushed the pace in 2016 and he probably would have won.