Disappointing and bizarre race to me.
Farah and Kejelcha way out ahead of everyone else at the end, but with a 54.4 last lap? I'd expect faster in such a slow race (13:11 ... probably 13:20 pace with 1 lap to go).
I guess the kicking didn't really get going to the last 250 (Kejelcha) and last 100 (Farah).
Of course the fall messed things up ... shame to see Ndiku and Alamirew go down. Alamirew hasn't been good this year, but looked like maybe he could have been in it at the end (hard to tell with such a slow pace).
The field let Farah go to the front, and just bunched up jogging behind him with 3 and 2 laps to go ... no one would pass. Same old, same old.
Pacers weren't close to requested splits ... 2:37/5:16/8:02. Think I heard it was supposed to be 7:45. Pacer slowed up to let the field catch him 3rd K. Can't blame them past the first K really, since field was never close to going with it, even being too slow.
I think if the field refuses to go with pacemakers, they should then reduce the prize money for each place.
Also the idea to only have pacemakers every other race, as I've read on here in the past, makes sense. Half the time no one uses them anyway.
No need to make it a super fast pace every race, but to have the pacemakers on simply reasonable pace, but 30-40m in front after a few laps is just ridiculous. 7:45 is 12:55 pace ... so nothing too silly.
5:16 was on pace for 13:10, no reason for field to be 5+ sec back of that.
Really I expected this to be a 12:57-59 race, with big kick last lap to get that. Jogging around at 13:30 pace most of the race is below it simply being more tactical for me. Oh well ...