1500m final

Webb should switch to Lagats coach!

Just thought I'd put that out there before someone else does. Of course, I'm joking.

Not 2 days ago I said Lagat would get the gold and Webb should finish / shoot for 7th as thats a big improvement and good goal for him! I'm a genius :)

is everyone sure webb is done this season?

i hope he runs another race, and shows it had nothing to do with peaking.

then again, i could be wrong and he may be done this season.

Very weird race. It looked to be set up perfectly for Webb but he just didnt have anything left in the home straight. Another person who will be absolutely gutted is Ramzi who had to check sharply having got boxed in the home straight. He will feel as though he had the strength to outstrip Laggy but his tactics cost him dear.

i'd outstrip lagat any day

now now wrote:

The posts about "desire" don't make any sense. Do some of you people really think that Webb would have run a faster last 100 if he simply wanted it more?

Desire has to do with dedication for training and doing all the little things in the days and weeks and months and years leading up to the championship race. Once the field is coming off the last turn, it has nothing to do with who wants it more at that moment. It has to do with who wanted it more the previous X years of training among a billion other factors.

Don´t be too harsh on the guy. He´s a virgin, he doesn´t know anything about desire.

Webb will never ever win a Gold in Olympics or World Championships because Asbel Kiprop will always finish ahead of Webb. This is as long as both of them finish.

visitor wrote:

i doubt he peaked if he ran a 2:15 1000m time trial last week.

I cannot express strongly enough how tired I am of hearing about peoples' time trials. half of them are BS and the other half have little to do with a 1500 where the difference between gold and seventh is one second. They were all in terrific shape to make the final and it was tactics and closing speed that made the diff. Webb did not have the kick, no matter how many 2:15 1000m time trials he ran this year.

WC 1500 races are like Mario-Kart. Anyone can be first and anyone can be 8th. But your older brother (Lagat) usually beats you because he has more experience playing the game.

It was terrific to have two guys in USA uniforms right in the pack. And one of them winning is even more exciting. Can't wait for Beijing!

Normally Webb is coming back to Europe (he stays in Brasschaat, where he ran his AR on the mile) and do some European meets (Berlin, Rieti, ...). But there could be a change of plans after this 1500.

Webb is now conditioned to running races where the pace is fast and allows him to make a middle move and draw the sting out of the kickers like Lagat and Ramzi. He does not know how to respond to a race that is not made by a pacemaker or is not fast . This is why he looked so confused and tentative in the semi-final and final. In the big races like the worlds and the olympics, no one is going to accomodate him and give him a pace that puts him at an advantage. Notice how Korir sprinted at the start to get position but refused to move into lane one and take the lead; this forced Webb, who also sprinted off the line to get position, to take the lead or get boxed in. Webb was done right there. Lagat just tucked in behind him and let him, Korir, and Kiprop do all the pacemaking work which set it up perfectly for him.

In addition to the pace and tactics of the race not favoring Webb, he was also compromised by his racing schedule; he ran a 3:30 1,500 on 7/6, then a 4:46 mile on 7/21, and finally, a 1:43 800 on 7/28. Many thought that he was perfectly prepared for Osaka, but this was not the way to be at your peak at the end of August. Three world-leading races within 4 weeks was too much. A runner only has so many races of that quality in him in one season. If the goal was to win the 1,500 in Osaka, then the month of July was fool's gold for Webb. In contrast, look at how Lagat used the races that he ran leading up to Osaka so that he peaked in the end of August. Two different strategies from two different levels of experience. Webb has the talent but lacks the experience and focus for the worlds and the olympics. If he wants to win in those venues, he will have to stop chasing records and fast times in the season of those events and work to prepare himself for tactical, rabbit-less racing.

he took that long becos of a certain el G and also he was suspended from 2004-2007. webb doesnt seem to be a champ racer, like asafa powell and ron clark.

By the numbers, Alan Webb was crucially short of the energy he had in his outstanding races from late June into mid-July.

By the numbers, too, Bernard Lagat's last 300 meters was not blazing in either his Semi-final or the Final. The split between lead-time and Bernard's finish-time in the Semi was 38:65. In Alan's Semi-final the same split was covered by Rachid Ramzi in 38;11 and by Alan in 38:66. In the Final the split between Asbel

Kiprop's lead-time of 2:55:21 and Bernard's finish-time of 3:34:77 was 39:56--

not fast for modern Championships.

I suppose that a combination of a little injury and a little illness in August took from Alan the recovery from his July that he would have needed to regain the little more he needed to medal after the Rounds in Osaka. A little means a lot on a knife's edge. As for Bernard; strength, experience, and really beautiful economy. Great year already for the 24-year-old. Great, vindicating result

for the 32-year0old champion.

As he grows even stronger, Alan might think about attacking a major Championships Final like Herb Elliot in Rome 1960 and Kip Keino in Mexico City 1968.