USA men’s 5k- hardest team to make for Tokyo?

Nigel Brunton +/- Nial Bruton wrote:

Lots of guns in this one:

True

Mead

Kincaid

Lomong

Hill

Fisher

Mcgorty

Chelimo

Kipchirchir

Will be a battle for top 3. Predictions?

1st Centro

2nd Lomong

3rd Mcgorty

4th Chelimo

5th Hunter

6th Fisher

7th Kincaid

The hardest team to make would be the team that will leave off someone who is near top in the world at that event. Most of these guys you listed have never run under 13:10, and Hill hasn't done it in a very long time.

Hardest men's team to make would probably be something like the 200, or the 400, possibly even 800. In the 200 you'll have someone running around 20 flat, roughly 10th in the world sitting at home. Similar in the 100, you'll have sub 10 guys that are ranked 10-15th in the world sitting at home. For 400 we had 6 of the world's top 9 fastest runners, 13 of the top 25 in the world. Two of them in the 43's, and a stack of guys in the 44's. That's probably the toughest team to make.

And for the women it'd be the 400 hurdles. They've got the top 4 in the world, including the two fastest runners in history. One of them will be sitting at home.

Fisher is like the 7th best 5000 guy on his own team. If he makes it, I'll eat my hat.

1. Chelimo

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

2-10. A group of Lomong/Centro/Hunter/McGorty/Mead/Kipchirchir/Bor/Bor/Jenkins

It will be Chelimo and Lomong and whatever BTC guy ends up being their 2nd best.

Nigel Brunton +/- Nial Bruton wrote:

Lots of guns in this one:

True

Mead

Kincaid

Lomong

Hill

Fisher

Mcgorty

Chelimo

Kipchirchir

Will be a battle for top 3. Predictions?

In my opinion the 5k is actually the weakest it's been in a while. First time without both Rupp and Lagat since 2004

NJ fan wrote:

Nigel Brunton +/- Nial Bruton wrote:

Lots of guns in this one:

True

Mead

Kincaid

Lomong

Hill

Fisher

Mcgorty

Chelimo

Kipchirchir

Will be a battle for top 3. Predictions?

In my opinion the 5k is actually the weakest it's been in a while. First time without both Rupp and Lagat since 2004

Rupp wasn’t as good as some of the current guys at 5000m.

Lenny Leonard wrote:

Fisher is like the 7th best 5000 guy on his own team. If he makes it, I'll eat my hat.

1. Chelimo

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

2-10. A group of Lomong/Centro/Hunter/McGorty/Mead/Kipchirchir/Bor/Bor/Jenkins

Give him a year and I say he's competitive. The extra year was a blessing to the young guys like Fisher.

Nope. The hardest team to make is both the Kenyan and Ethiopian.

Imagine you're an elite 5k runner of one of those countries and you want to go the Olympics... Must be a disheartening thing. Even Kipchoge failed to make the Kenyan team in 2012.

The US 5000m team is definitely harder to make than the Kenyan 5000m team currently. It’s not close.

Anyway, the real answer is probably men’s 400m or something.

I think several of you are not understanding the point of this thread...it's not that the US 5k is the most competitive relative to the rest of the world...it's that there isn't a clear 3...probably 8-10 guys with a realistic shot of making the team...assuming that many people can hit the standard.

[quote]brahmamama wrote:

The US 5000m team is definitely harder to make than the Kenyan 5000m team currently. It’s not close./quote]

This might have been true 2-3 years ago, but is not anymore. They still are weaker than the ethiopians and have no definitive medal contender like Chelimo, but overall their depth is fine now and I wouldn't want to guess who will make the team next year (also keep in mind that their two trial winners weren't allowed to compete at Doha last year because they didn't get tested enough beforehand).

I agree however that there are harder teams to make than the US men's 5000m. The hardest might be the women's 100 m hurdles, there are basically 10+ women who potentially could medal at Toyko.

That team is strong for US but weak at the world level and none are likely to medal.

Edris

Kejelcha

Barega

Gebriwhet

Telahun Bekele

Berihu

Are all much better than all of the americans.

Their two top steeple guys Wale and Girma would both stomp the US 5 000m field.

Women's 400m hurdles. Followed by women's 100m hurdles.

Men’s shot

Ozzie wrote:

Women's 400m hurdles. Followed by women's 100m hurdles.

Remember a few years ago when Keni didn't make the team and then set the WR. The team swept the WCs also.

Women's 100H for sure.

tenkrunner wrote:

I think several of you are not understanding the point of this thread...it's not that the US 5k is the most competitive relative to the rest of the world...it's that there isn't a clear 3...probably 8-10 guys with a realistic shot of making the team...assuming that many people can hit the standard.

That doesn’t make any sense. Would you say my alma mater’s 4x4 is harder to make than the US 5000m team just because they have 10 guys who all have PRs between 48.6 and 49.4?

No. You wouldn’t.

Alfred de Musset wrote:

That team is strong for US but weak at the world level and none are likely to medal.

Edris

Kejelcha

Barega

Gebriwhet

Telahun Bekele

Berihu

Are all much better than all of the americans.

Their two top steeple guys Wale and Girma would both stomp the US 5 000m field.

These guys can’t all run in the Olympics.

notevenclose wrote:

[quote]brahmamama wrote:

The US 5000m team is definitely harder to make than the Kenyan 5000m team currently. It’s not close./quote]

This might have been true 2-3 years ago, but is not anymore. They still are weaker than the ethiopians and have no definitive medal contender like Chelimo, but overall their depth is fine now and I wouldn't want to guess who will make the team next year (also keep in mind that their two trial winners weren't allowed to compete at Doha last year because they didn't get tested enough beforehand).

I agree however that there are harder teams to make than the US men's 5000m. The hardest might be the women's 100 m hurdles, there are basically 10+ women who potentially could medal at Toyko.

Agreed on women’s 100h.

Anyway, I confidently predict US will do better as a team in the Olympic 5000m final than Kenya in 2021.

brahmamama wrote:

Alfred de Musset wrote:

That team is strong for US but weak at the world level and none are likely to medal.

Edris

Kejelcha

Barega

Gebriwhet

Telahun Bekele

Berihu

Are all much better than all of the americans.

Their two top steeple guys Wale and Girma would both stomp the US 5 000m field.

These guys can’t all run in the Olympics.

No but that is why the level to make that team is way harder than the US team.