What happened was Bol got her ASS handed to her on a silver platter by SML.
And there ya go....in this particular event, there is no one better and may ever will be. Bol? Well run that contrived mixed whatever the f that was..good for her. Sydney ran a one off training 200M in 22.07 ..come on now she medals easily at 200M, clearly wins 400M
Just deal with this, Bol was never beating her , not on a on motorbike, not in any event and why would anyone think differently. When she breaks the dirtiest record of all time, if she ever does the open 400 all out, I am wondering what people will say, "well she should have doubled"
Lol...these guys. This is like saying the 3/6 guys who lost to Bolt are abject failures and went home devastated because they didnt beat the all time track GOAT.
Bol is a great athlete and today was not representative of her abilities. With that said the talk that she was going to potentially beat Sydney going into the games was ridiculous. Sydney has consistently performed at her best at world championships. On her best day Bol is still about a half second back on Sydney.
We throw around the GOAT term or best all time in sports way to often. And people get way to caught up in times, constantly forgetting the technology improvements. But Sydney level of dominance over her career to thus far put her in a different discussion than other gold medalists.
I think on Bol's best day Bol runs 50.75 maybe? Stop with the she was better but compromised by the rinky dink contrived relay she ran days ago
Bol looked sick when she jogged out for the start of the race. I said to another guy watching that she looked like she had been beaten up and he agreed.
Bol looked sick when Sydney left her on the curve. She knew then that she should not have tried to keep up with Sydney and it was going to be a struggle to make it home as lactic was going to kick in.
The amount of people in here that don't know who SML's coach is is too damn high. If you don't know who it is, or what he was doing during the 70s, 80s and 90s, your opinion is useless.
We know who Sydney's coach is. He's also Keni Harrison's coach and Athing Mu's coach and was Felix' coach. And of his entire stable only Sydney made it to the Olympics. You trying to create a narrative isn't going to work.
The amount of people in here that don't know who SML's coach is is too damn high. If you don't know who it is, or what he was doing during the 70s, 80s and 90s, your opinion is useless.
He hides in the shadows to not draw attention to himself. It's not from being modest as he used to freely be part of the story when track fans and sports fans in general didn't have a clue how dirty athletics is at the top.
After the Johnson fiasco and the never ending rumors of FGJ he's avoided attention to not become another Trevor Graham, Remy Korchemy, Charlie Francis etc...
Bol is a great athlete and today was not representative of her abilities. With that said the talk that she was going to potentially beat Sydney going into the games was ridiculous. Sydney has consistently performed at her best at world championships. On her best day Bol is still about a half second back on Sydney.
We throw around the GOAT term or best all time in sports way to often. And people get way to caught up in times, constantly forgetting the technology improvements. But Sydney level of dominance over her career to thus far put her in a different discussion than other gold medalists.
I think on Bol's best day Bol runs 50.75 maybe? Stop with the she was better but compromised by the rinky dink contrived relay she ran days ago
Yep
In the press conference Bol herself said running the mixed relay had no impact on the outcome
She said she ran too hard out of the gates and had nothing left for the finish
The Silver Medal was Bol's to loose, that was a terrible performance by her.
Indeed, did she go out too hard? She seemed to be right with SML for the first 150m, then fell apart around 280-300m.
I think she psyched herself out.
Had she raced for silver and started more conservatively, she may earned it over Cockrell, but I am glad she was gusty about it and went for 1st. She’ll never have to question herself with “what if?”
Don’t you think Bol’s strategy was to stay as close to Sydney as possible? Unfortunately nobody could do such a thing. It almost looked like Sydney accelerated for the last two hurdles, because lactic acid kicked in at 40 seconds… for the others… not Sydney. Anybody have her splits by hurdle?
I hope Bol runs in some of the remaining Diamond League races and runs one up to her abilities. Would be great to see her break 51 at a normal altitude.
Im sure she doesn’t want that to be her last individual race of the season.
Bol is a great athlete and today was not representative of her abilities. With that said the talk that she was going to potentially beat Sydney going into the games was ridiculous. Sydney has consistently performed at her best at world championships. On her best day Bol is still about a half second back on Sydney.
We throw around the GOAT term or best all time in sports way to often. And people get way to caught up in times, constantly forgetting the technology improvements. But Sydney level of dominance over her career to thus far put her in a different discussion than other gold medalists.
I think on Bol's best day Bol runs 50.75 maybe? Stop with the she was better but compromised by the rinky dink contrived relay she ran days ago
Very true. AC has been getting better bit by bit. Ran close to WR. Bol has 2 people to deal with now.
Race less, travel less, works great for getting your peak on.
I thought Bol did just the right thing. If she wanted to be competitive she had to take it out fast. It wasn't just Sydney and Cockrell alongside her. The entire field to the outside was right there with her at hurdle 7.
That was just like the Budapest final last year. I emphasized at the time that it was an evolving event with more women determined to take it out fast. Cockrell fell apart last year but made great strides this year.
Bol's natural tendency is to be patient early, like her relay splits. That style doesn't work at 400 hurdles at highest level. Her second issue is the pathetic caliber of competition she faces in typical 400 hurdles races in Europe. There is never any serious pressure as she glides between 7 and 8. Today she was startled at Sydney getting away on that turn then really lost form when Cockrell was still there after 9. Bol lost her stride pattern for the first time in a global final, chopping to 16 steps and forced to use her weak right lead. The silver was gone and fortunate to hold bronze. It won't be long before 52 low is worth nothing.
Imagine if Sydney had been stupid enough to stick with 400 flat this year. Instead of owning massive advantage over Bol she would be facing a peaking Paulino who has now wised up and is taking it out much faster.
She def either is ill or (more likely) just had the hammer down way to hard.
She, it turns out, was drawing dead against SML, and a 3rd possibility is she checked out for the 4x4 but more likely she simply ran a 300mH as fast as Syd and was thoroughly cooked off the turn and started pedaling squares.
I did not think Bol could beat Sydney, but I have NEVER seen her fade in the straight like that. Her time was very slow for her. Not sure if she went out too hard, if the relay took too much from her, or maybe she has COVID too.
The relay was almost a week ago. She went out too hard over the first 200M.
Did she? She went with Syd, but Syd does not go out super hard. She goes out with 14 strides conserving it with longish strides, then changes to 15 from the steeple (7th) and flies home. They both run it in a very similar way with similar stride patterns.
I think Norman injured himself in that final. In watching his race, he starts aggressively but his pace drops significantly at 150. I think he felt a twinge somewhere but still wanted to finish.