Goodness, give him a break. He's 21 years old and just growing into professional racing. No reason this thread should be hot on letsrun or as disparaging as it is.
Except that this wasn't his first go at an international race. He went pro, and made a collegiate decision to drop out at a minor inconvenience
While I was bummed he didn't finish, I don't think going over the inside rail is a minor inconvenience. It is a major inconvenience, especially in a race like that.
Consider his options:
1. Try to regain his original pace in the pack. This means negotiating traffic both in front and behind (possibly getting spiked from both directions), possibly throwing elbows to make space, and negotiating the rail at 56 second pace while paying attention to the pack. Huge risk of a bad step on the rail if someone doesn't let you in.
2. Slow down marginally and keep running on the inside of the rail until he can hop on to the back of the pack. This probably would have meant running the rest of the straight on the inside of the rail (50 meters?), while frequently turning his head to see when the back of the pack would pass him. Maybe possible if you like to keep your head on swivel like Fermin Cacho, but would you get DQ'd for running 50 meters inside the rail?
3. Come to a complete stop for a second on the inside rail, look back, and accelerate to join the back of the pack. Consider that he took 2 or 3 really jarring steps when he almost went down, then he'd be doing a hard acceleration right away. If he had any momentary injury concerns, there is some risk to this. Stopping and starting is the least risky as far as the rail and getting spiked are concerned, but you also lose the most time this way.
In a race like that, falling on the track is actually a lot more straightforward than losing your place and getting bumped inside the rail. If you go down, you just get up and keep going as soon as it is safe. When you are inside the rail, your options for continuing come with different risks and benefits (safety/risk of injury vs. maximizing odds of running a fast time).
It looked like his option was to wait a beat and hop on the back of the pack. Basically akin to a fall except of course without the carnage. Easy to say he should’ve done that now. He’s still learning and gets emotional in these sort of races. Another learning experience and at least it wasn’t in a qualifying race.
This post was edited 14 seconds after it was posted.
It looked like his option was to wait a beat and hop on the back of the pack. Basically akin to a fall except of course without the carnage. Easy to say he should’ve done that now. He’s still learning and gets emotional in these sort of races. Another learning experience and at least it wasn’t in a qualifying race.
“Gets emotional in these types of races”
which ones are those? This is a one off
So, people want intel? First of all Hocker is squeezing his way into a spot that is not there , so be it that’s how I see it.
Kessler I believe , wrongly thought he was in a DQ scenario
Remember this happened all in under 2 secs
he did think about getting back on but most likely would have caused a second accident with majority of field right there storming along, jumping right back in
People wanted him to wait until end of the train and hop back into a 3:45 race?At the end of the train?
Why? Because if he doesn’t he doesn’t show enough balls for you?
That’s stupid why burn an effort to run 3:52. X when he is surely fitter than when he ran 3:48.x at Millrose
Except for an awkward finish in 800 , all his efforts this year had been clean and tactically sound.
people will say what people say
I know it does not matter to the folks involved, runner , Coach etc.
It looked like his option was to wait a beat and hop on the back of the pack. Basically akin to a fall except of course without the carnage. Easy to say he should’ve done that now. He’s still learning and gets emotional in these sort of races. Another learning experience and at least it wasn’t in a qualifying race.
“Gets emotional in these types of races”
which ones are those? This is a one off
So, people want intel? First of all Hocker is squeezing his way into a spot that is not there , so be it that’s how I see it.
Kessler I believe , wrongly thought he was in a DQ scenario
Remember this happened all in under 2 secs
he did think about getting back on but most likely would have caused a second accident with majority of field right there storming along, jumping right back in
People wanted him to wait until end of the train and hop back into a 3:45 race?At the end of the train?
Why? Because if he doesn’t he doesn’t show enough balls for you?
That’s stupid why burn an effort to run 3:52. X when he is surely fitter than when he ran 3:48.x at Millrose
Except for an awkward finish in 800 , all his efforts this year had been clean and tactically sound.
people will say what people say
I know it does not matter to the folks involved, runner , Coach etc.
And the "chicken " down voters continue..lol
You weenies crack me up..Cry out for info, then down vote the provider of that.. it's hysterical .
So, people want intel? First of all Hocker is squeezing his way into a spot that is not there , so be it that’s how I see it.
Kessler I believe , wrongly thought he was in a DQ scenario
Remember this happened all in under 2 secs
he did think about getting back on but most likely would have caused a second accident with majority of field right there storming along, jumping right back in
People wanted him to wait until end of the train and hop back into a 3:45 race?At the end of the train?
Why? Because if he doesn’t he doesn’t show enough balls for you?
That’s stupid why burn an effort to run 3:52. X when he is surely fitter than when he ran 3:48.x at Millrose
Except for an awkward finish in 800 , all his efforts this year had been clean and tactically sound.
people will say what people say
I know it does not matter to the folks involved, runner , Coach etc.
USA indoors when he lost his cool at the finish…New Balance indoors last year where he got a bad start, gave up and ran 4:05. I didn’t want to highlight the negatives, but you asked. Again I thought it was bang-bang. There was nothing remotely like a DQ in the exchange. And there was no egregious cut in or anything. So when you say that, I don’t subscribe to a view of throwing out blame. I think he defensively dropped out, but it was an emotional decision.
I thought more of you, those are two events separated by over a yea
one an illness
second a frustration
This was not a defensive drop out
Many have noted how Hocker came down and was moving into a spot there was not
Not me, I said no blame on day one , just unfortunate
we shall see I guess
Again I think these are not big deals and I have no problem with Hobbs. I didn’t say any of it was particularly bad. But he races with his heart on his sleeve a little bit. Not unusual for a young guy. Excited to see his next race. Has that been decided?
This post was edited 2 minutes after it was posted.
There's something odd about Kessler. I'm guessing he has some degree of autism. The way he looks and talks seems off-kilter to me. Perhaps his off-kilter exterior also extends to spatial awareness. Cutting into lane 1 at that L.A. 800 was really strange. What happened at the Bowerman Mile is up for debate, but it appears Kessler again got unnecessarily tangled up with others. Then he quit like a total chicken. I don't think the issue is lack of NCAA competition. Instead, his autism (or whatever it is) makes it more difficult to run in crowded situations.
For those of you playing armchair psychologist in questioning Kessler’s grit, recall that he happens to also be a world class climber in a sport where even a momentary loss of focus can literally kill you. There are many possible reasons why he didn’t re-enter the race. Without having all the evidence, we should back off and leave him in peace. Likely no one feels as bad about what happened as he does.
Kessler got a little tripped up and then just jumped off the track even though he EASILY could have kept running. He was perfectly fine, it wouldn't even have cost him a quarter of a second. It was a cowardly move by Kessler.
Teare, on the other hand, got tripped really badly but kept running and still managed a 3:53.
Former 3:33 runner here. This is an ignorant post. When you are running 55/400 pace and this happens, it is incredibly difficult to regain your composure. So Kessler did not chicken out, his only mistake is that he tends to run the rail in races where it is difficult to react, but he definitely didn't chicken out.
spot on about trying to "regain your composure" 55 sec 400= 7.22m/sec
In 2 second the pack is already 14 meters down the line before you can even think!!!!
