When will Ethiopians understand that you don't beat 1500 runners in a 13:15 min race ?

THOUGHTSLEADER wrote:

Salvitore Stitchmo wrote:

My explanation? My guess? That they all think they can kick and beat a guy like Jakob in that style of race.

And had, I dunno, Eugene 2022 not happened, I guess that would be okay - but they say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results - well how else do you describe Budapest. And it's not just on Kejelcha who clearly races global finals without any understanding of how to win them, it was Gebrhiwet, Aregawi as well. So maybe delusional is a better word? Clueless?

I'd call Aregawi the most delusional of all. Kejelcha at least we can point to Florence and say well he thinks he can kick really well in a slower race to beat most of these guys. Krop obviously found some form since then, and Grijalva did as well though he should never have been discounted by them especially when they saw how actively he mixed it up in the final and the heats. For Aregawi, can we ever find a slow race he has done really well in? Meanwhile, his success rate when he actually goes all-out from 2K away is pretty darn amazing.

Joerd wrote:

Salvitore Stitchmo wrote:

My explanation? My guess? That they all think they can kick and beat a guy like Jakob in that style of race.

And had, I dunno, Eugene 2022 not happened, I guess that would be okay - but they say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results - well how else do you describe Budapest. And it's not just on Kejelcha who clearly races global finals without any understanding of how to win them, it was Gebrhiwet, Aregawi as well. So maybe delusional is a better word? Clueless?

Do you think they would have beaten Jakob doing as you prescribe? It is possible, surely Jakob looked beatable but of course we don’t know. These same arguments often happened in relation to Mo Farah. It is often difficult to run away from guys like Farah and 7:54 2 miler Jakob, although he didn’t look quite that capable in Budapest. They maybe will try next time or maybe not and then the critics can let loose again.

xcfan2233 wrote:

anon1 wrote:

You are completely ignoring the difficulty of the conditions plus the effect of the preliminary round. Steve Cram (who was in Budapest and Zurich and might even know more about world class championship racing than you but I can't be sure) in commentary took pains to point this out. There is also the lack of downside of getting race tactics wrong on the DL circuit.

But hey, all you really want to do is scoff at people on here and get yourself an ego boost.

A 13:30 preliminary round for 12:40 guys is not gonna do anything be for real. Also, 2/3 of the Ethiopians were fresh, while their main competitor Jakob was doubling back from a hard 1,500 so pretty sure he would have felt comparatively worse.

Fact of the matter is Ethiopia is going home with zero medals in the 5K, so doing literally anything else but sit and kick would have been a better strategy. And everyone is facing the same conditions, if it hurts for them, its gonna hurt even more for the guy with 4 races in his legs anyway

Salvitore Stitchmo wrote:

Joerd wrote:

Do you think they would have beaten Jakob doing as you prescribe? It is possible, surely Jakob looked beatable but of course we don’t know. These same arguments often happened in relation to Mo Farah. It is often difficult to run away from guys like Farah and 7:54 2 miler Jakob, although he didn’t look quite that capable in Budapest. They maybe will try next time or maybe not and then the critics can let loose again.

I don't know. Maybe, maybe not. End of the day they were the guys with the ability - sub 12.42 runners (and I think we are forgetting how good that is) - to dictate the direction of the race physiologically. Kejelcha and Gebrhiwet were both less than 1.5 seconds behind Jakob at the finish and they allowed the race to be run in a way that perfectly suited both Jakob and Katir.

I don't understand why it's inconceivable to suggest that running 60.5's from 3200m onwards instead of 63's and 62's makes this race a hell of a lot more interesting and tougher for Katir and J.I then it was. And tonight was just more evidence that was well within the capabilities of those sub 12.44 guys.