Official 2013 Worlds Men's 800 Thread - Discuss it here

Time to bag Paris Hilton, right losers?

silverr wrote:

hurdle555 wrote:

Let's not get too excited here. The 800 is not a tactical race, Symmonds is no where near the WR which was recently set and nearly broken again. And without injuries to others....he doesn't even sniff the awards stand. Lucky year, which is what it took for him medal. He is far from the 2nd best 800 meter runner in the world.

Good thing they hand out medals based on the results of RACES and not just have each runner do a time trial and hand out medals to the top 3 fastest times.

Nick was healthy when it counted and earned his silver.

You are absolutely correct in saying that he earned his medal for second place today. hurdle555 is also correct that Symmonds is not the second best 800 meter runner on the planet.

coach d wrote:

Barakus Obama wrote:

5. Too much Igloi and too little endurance for Solomon?

Went out waay too hard in the semis. Souleyman and Symmonds ran 1:45, Aman ran 1:44.71...Solomon ran 1:43.87. Solomon was pushed by Mohammed who finished DFL today--Solomon didn't have to win the semi.

There was some moron named TrackCoach who said that's ok for someone who ran 1:42. Wrong. As I said at the time, you don't run 1 second off your PR, then recover to win 2 days later. Solomon dying was set up in the semis.

Solomon's fade had more to do with his tactical errors than in how fast he ran two days ago. That slow down in the 2nd 200 killed his chances.

The Olympic and world championship 800 race is a war of attrition. It is unpredictable hopefully Solomon learned from it. symmonds raced lime a wise veteran

Coach wrote:

The Olympic and world championship 800 race is a war of attrition. It is unpredictable hopefully Solomon learned from it. symmonds raced lime a wise veteran

He also raced lemon a wise veteran

Wottle's Hat wrote:

If Symmonds had risked Amman's strategy--risking getting boxed in but running less distance by running on the rail--he might have avoiding the rig and won.

But saying Symmonds did anything wrong is like saying Johnny Gray did something wrong in 1992. Symmonds ran a great race.

Unless avoiding rig would have been right.

Ho Hum wrote:

It looked like that first 200 did kill Symmonds a little bit. That's the only time I can recall seeing him tie up at all, let alone that far out from the line. Still, you can't sneeze at a silver.

Seems like I heard that somewhere before...

suburbanxcore wrote:

grizz wrote:

Look, I'm not trying to be rude here, but have you ever run an 800m race?

I'm not claiming to be any sort of expert here, but multiple people have said the same thing. In previous years, Nick has sat in the back (often last) and charged hard, only to come up a bit short despite a very strong last 200. This season he's switched up his tactics a bit and found success with it. Good for him.

Not entirely true.

He has "experimented" with his strategy the last 3 years. Sure, sometimes he's reverted to his sit and kick strategy, but he has also run in the middle, in the front etc.

+1

A Duck wrote:

suburbanxcore wrote:

I'm not claiming to be any sort of expert here, but multiple people have said the same thing. In previous years, Nick has sat in the back (often last) and charged hard, only to come up a bit short despite a very strong last 200. This season he's switched up his tactics a bit and found success with it. Good for him.

Not entirely true.

He has "experimented" with his strategy the last 3 years. Sure, sometimes he's reverted to his sit and kick strategy, but he has also run in the middle, in the front etc.

It's good that you mention this, because he definitely has mixed up his strategy from time to time. So many here have praised him for "finally" putting himself near the front early in the race. Yet I'm surprised nobody remembers him doing the exact same thing back in the 2009 WC final! Four years ago he again was on the shoulder of the leader at the halfway mark (albeit in a slower race) and remained there until the homestretch--of course that time, his kick didn't come.

But kudos to Symmonds for sticking with it and really delivering it this time. A win would have been amazing but I still loved the way he ran.