As far as 10000 fitness: last year Farah beat Kam by 4 seconds. Their half marathon PRs going into Cardiff were 38 seconds apart in Kam's favor. Kam beat Farah by 49 seconds, with a fall that cost him around 15-20seconds.
Factor in Kam being much younger, and it is looking like Kam will be in better straight time fitness for 10000 by 10-20 seconds. whether this is enough to win by leading most of the race in Rio is a close call. WIth help from Karoki and/or Tanui it seems quite doable.
The suggestion that last year's 27:00 10k final was not a fast race is astoundingly stupid. 27:00 is very fast on its own, but when you consider the lack of a rabbit, the very warm temperatures at the time of the race, the championship format in which most runners in the field stand to benefit by doing as little of the early work as possible, it becomes even more impressive.
How many sub 27:00 10ks have there been in the last four years? And how many have been done without a rabbit, set outside of cool nighttime temps? How many all time fit that criteria? And of those, how many of those came in an era of doping even more rampant than today?
it will be a sprint finish. hope it goes the way of geb and tergat . No Farah still hv the upperhand in 10k track. racing on the track exerts different force than the road and he will capitalize on the biomechanics favoring him
Why are people thinking GK will win if the pace is 26:50 or even 26:40? Mo ran 26:4+ years ago, and there's nothing to suggest he's weaker now. And his last lap in that race beat the worlds best. And Kam doesn't have a great last lap. I think if they aim for sub 26:30 it'll be a great race. If the pace is 26:40 or higher, maybe even 26:35 or higher, Mo has to be favorite.
I think it's funny how V^3 (and others) talk about Kamworor having "26:10" intrinsic ability, then in the next breath talk about how multiple people (Tanui, Karoki) need to push the pace to drop Farah.
So are we really talking about Team Kenya beating Mo Farah? Because one on one, Farah will crush these fellows on the track. I mean he's been doing it for 5 years now! I don't need to talk about "what if two guys run WR pace from the gun so that a third guy might be able to use his strength to outlast the fourth guy".
I've seen Mo Farah, time and again, run whatever race is presented and then win. 5000, 10000, whatever. Double the distance, and yea maybe "3:28 Mo" can't run sub 59. He has run sub 60 at least 3 times, and sub 61 a couple more on top of that.
Until he is beaten, I don't believe anyone will actually beat him at 5000 or 10000 on the track.
