So the young man who ran 7:17 last year and 3:45/3:29 just a few months ago indoor is a has-been, got it!
Not a has-been, but he HAS BEEN getting worse at World-championship level 1500s the last 3-ish years
2021: 1st
2022i: 2nd
2022 WC: 2nd
2023 WC: 3rd
2024 Oly: 4th
Nobody would consider someone with that record the favorite in 2025.
That 4th place shouldn't be taken serious in this context (the other numbers are legit comparisons), you only need to look at his posture over the last fifty meters in 2024 that he doesn't give a manure when first place becomes out or range, 2nd or 3rd or 4th or last doesn't mean anything to him at that point, he's just going through the motions until its over.
Not a has-been, but he HAS BEEN getting worse at World-championship level 1500s the last 3-ish years
2021: 1st
2022i: 2nd
2022 WC: 2nd
2023 WC: 3rd
2024 Oly: 4th
Nobody would consider someone with that record the favorite in 2025.
That 4th place shouldn't be taken serious in this context (the other numbers are legit comparisons), you only need to look at his posture over the last fifty meters in 2024 that he doesn't give a manure when first place becomes out or range, 2nd or 3rd or 4th or last doesn't mean anything to him at that point, he's just going through the motions until its over.
Hmmm... I haven't thought about it before, but thinking about it now I think that maybe Cole Hooker owes Jakob a big thanks for giving up almost a hundred meters out - had he NOT done that but instead continued to fight tooth and nail for silver or bronze there might NOT have been room/time enough for Cole to move past everyone all the way up to first place. Had Jakob fought all the way to the line he might still have been passed by Cole (I think so), but there wouldn't have been enought time/room left for Cole to pass both the Brit and the Goose.
I haven't read through all the postings on this subject yet, so maybe this is a repeat of what someone else said. But is a 1500 final necessarily going to be fast? Let's ask that of Centro in regard to his Rio gold! Being in WR shape is exciting, but it could mean little in a kickers' race.
Yes and no. That was the era of Asbel Kiprop's dominance, who didn't necessary like to take it out from the front in champ races, and didn't like to be in the middle because of his abnormally long legs and different cadence (increased risk of being tripped/falling). The whole field benefitted (at least theoretically) from, when they saw hid wanted to start at the back again, going extremelly slow and neutralize his kick. Had he been a sharper tool in the shed he would have moved to the front and picked it up already on the second backstretch.
He was a doper who toyed with fields when he was 100%. Look at this race, demolished everyone over the last 200m.
Not a has-been, but he HAS BEEN getting worse at World-championship level 1500s the last 3-ish years
2021: 1st
2022i: 2nd
2022 WC: 2nd
2023 WC: 3rd
2024 Oly: 4th
Nobody would consider someone with that record the favorite in 2025.
That 4th place shouldn't be taken serious in this context (the other numbers are legit comparisons), you only need to look at his posture over the last fifty meters in 2024 that he doesn't give a manure when first place becomes out or range, 2nd or 3rd or 4th or last doesn't mean anything to him at that point, he's just going through the motions until its over.
Interesting post but as also - as already pointed out by several posters and admitted by yourself - rather biased towards Hocker and the other Americans.
Firstly: When you hang much of your argumentation up on numbers it is undermining if your numbers are wrong.
My Norwegian friend Kaare has given you an example regarding Nordas.
I will give you one example about Jakob (since I recently wrote about his finishing ability on another thread):
In the 1500m semifinal in 2023 in Budapest he ran 12:47 in the last 100m so some faster than the 12:85 you postulated in your word document. In the same race he ran 25:44 last 200m, 38:34 last 300, around 51 high (the race analysis is wrong about his split time at 1100m which about 1 seconds too slow and 1:48.10 last 800m; the race time 3:24.99).
I will comment on your rankings in some later posts.
The splits on the Budapest Semi Final were annacurate. He closed that race in 12.8.
This is what I told Kaarev about Nordas
"That's not quite accurate. The omega splits for Nordas list a 12.8 because they only go out to the tenth. Going frame by frame it's like 12.87 (Give or take a couple 100ths). The race in Pfungstadt was closed in 53.5 and no accurate 100m splits can be seen from any video that I've seen. Nordas may or may not be fitter than 2023, but far from men like Hocker and Laros right now."
Yes and no. That was the era of Asbel Kiprop's dominance, who didn't necessary like to take it out from the front in champ races, and didn't like to be in the middle because of his abnormally long legs and different cadence (increased risk of being tripped/falling). The whole field benefitted (at least theoretically) from, when they saw hid wanted to start at the back again, going extremelly slow and neutralize his kick. Had he been a sharper tool in the shed he would have moved to the front and picked it up already on the second backstretch.
He was a doper who toyed with fields when he was 100%. Look at this race, demolished everyone over the last 200m.
Well, not the best example you could have found, since the guy who comes second (moves from fifth to second in the last twenty meters) closes EVEN FASTER once he finds a free way.
Kiprop might have been a doper, but at least three things speaks against that:
1: Female runners from Kenya of that era has testified that they were blackmailed into paying with sex, or face getting clean samples dirtied by testers for "revenge" if they didn't pay up. So there was a blackmail culture for sex (and money on men) among testers in Kenya at the time, just as Kiprop has claimed. Remember that Samuel Wanjiru might have been (probably was) offed for refusing to pay, rather than the official "police investigation" version about wife trouble.
2: Kiprop's anatomy. Just look at the lenght. His pelvis sits a whole head higher than his competitors. His stride lenght is unrivalled to this day. But his cadence isn't actually uniqelly high, he's just "jumping" longer for every stride, just like the Venezuelan woman who now has the WR in the Triple jump.
3: As mentioned above, even when he finished first in style, he wasn't always the fastest closer over the last fifty, it just looked like that because he won so often.
This post was edited 3 minutes after it was posted.