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

7th in the Olympic 5k in 2012 after running the 10k a few days before.

Here's who beat him:

Mo Farah - we all know his accomplishments

Gebremeskel - 12:46 5k PR

Longosiwa - 12:49 5k PR

Lagat - 3:26.34 in the 1500 and 12:53.6 in the 5k

Kiplangat Koech - 12:48 5k PR

Iguider - 12:59 5k PR and 3:28 in the 1500, #9 all time, just got a bronze in the 1500

Most of his opponents in the 5k were fresh. That's a HUGE advantage. And Rupp was clearly focusing his training for the 10k which negatively affects his ability to kick in a slow 5k.

He still beat 12:45 guy Gebrihewit and 12:48 Alamirew and 12:50 Kipsiro in that race.

NJ fan wrote:

Exactly. People like to forget just how good Rupp was/is. He was a BEAST in both the 5k and 10k.

If he did cheesy time trials like the Lomong/Kincaid race, he was fit enough to run sub 12:50 and likely 26:30 in his peak.

In his current 5k and 10k personal bests, he had to deal with a lot of traffic, making moves, passing people, the pace slowed towards the end when he was feeling fine before kicking. He ran much of his 5k PR in lane 2/3. He finished them both with MASSIVE kicks. If you can close a 12:58 race in a 1:57, you are fit enough to run around 12:50 in a time trial setting.

26:44 at Hayward was a “cheesy” time trial set up just for Galen.

By 2024 Fisher will be the best American. I predict 12:55 by then

I don’t see the Olympics happening next summer. I hope I am wrong

Nigel Brunton +/- Nial Bruton wrote:

NJ fan wrote:

Exactly. People like to forget just how good Rupp was/is. He was a BEAST in both the 5k and 10k.

If he did cheesy time trials like the Lomong/Kincaid race, he was fit enough to run sub 12:50 and likely 26:30 in his peak.

In his current 5k and 10k personal bests, he had to deal with a lot of traffic, making moves, passing people, the pace slowed towards the end when he was feeling fine before kicking. He ran much of his 5k PR in lane 2/3. He finished them both with MASSIVE kicks. If you can close a 12:58 race in a 1:57, you are fit enough to run around 12:50 in a time trial setting.

26:44 at Hayward was a “cheesy” time trial set up just for Galen.

Yeah it was, but then again so are are a ton of the BTC races, including Lopez’s 13:00. Galen has a better pr, better places in championship and elite races, and times that would suggest he would’ve ran faster. I can’t really see why someone would say Lopez is better considering those factors. Nevertheless, I think Mo and Lopez are racing a 5k tomorrow and I hope we see some fast times.

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

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

I agree although I feel like Lomong is a pretty safe bet for 2nd

michiganrunner50 wrote:

By 2024 Fisher will be the best American. I predict 12:55 by then

My guy

How am I holding them to different standards? Do you want me to list all the races Rupp was in from 2009-2016 that had guys under 12:58? Because there were a lot.

NJ fan wrote:

Exactly. People like to forget just how good Rupp was/is. He was a BEAST in both the 5k and 10k.

If he did cheesy time trials like the Lomong/Kincaid race, he was fit enough to run sub 12:50 and likely 26:30 in his peak.

In his current 5k and 10k personal bests, he had to deal with a lot of traffic, making moves, passing people, the pace slowed towards the end when he was feeling fine before kicking. He ran much of his 5k PR in lane 2/3. He finished them both with MASSIVE kicks. If you can close a 12:58 race in a 1:57, you are fit enough to run around 12:50 in a time trial setting.

You’ve got to be gd kidding me. There has never been an American distance runner, at least not in the last 30 years, that had more cheesy time trial kind of races than Galen Rupp.

Nigel Brunton +/- Nial Bruton wrote:

NJ fan wrote:

Exactly. People like to forget just how good Rupp was/is. He was a BEAST in both the 5k and 10k.

If he did cheesy time trials like the Lomong/Kincaid race, he was fit enough to run sub 12:50 and likely 26:30 in his peak.

In his current 5k and 10k personal bests, he had to deal with a lot of traffic, making moves, passing people, the pace slowed towards the end when he was feeling fine before kicking. He ran much of his 5k PR in lane 2/3. He finished them both with MASSIVE kicks. If you can close a 12:58 race in a 1:57, you are fit enough to run around 12:50 in a time trial setting.

26:44 at Hayward was a “cheesy” time trial set up just for Galen.

FALSE. You also forget Rupp has run 26:48 before in a legit race against Bekele, Rotich, Bett, Kipchoge, Kirui and more.

At prefontaine it wasn't even on pace for a PR for Rupp until he ran the last 800 in 1:57 (2:08 per 800 would get him the record). So he was 7 seconds SLOWER than his PR at the time (26:48) pace through 9200m. He closed in 1:57 to get him a 4 second PR. And if you watch the race, you can see he was holding back the last 2k being safe just going for the win. I wish he had made a move from 4 laps out because he looked incredible and it looked like he had a lot left.

It was a good race between him and Tanui. Sambu as well, he was pacing but he was racing at the end and he finished in 26:54.

Rupp made 2 attempts at the AR on June 11, 2014 and July 5, 2014, that were publicized record attempts. He ran 13:03 and 13:01.

I don't think he ever had much more than 12:58. His indoor time indicates he could have run a couple seconds faster on the perfect day, perfect weather, etc. but I'm not sure that means much. Everyone deals with conditions. Lagat had to run a 1:53 final 800 to get his 12:53 AR.

The pacing in both of those races was pretty bad. In Oslo the pacers went out super fast and then over corrected and slowed the field down. In Paris the pacers were slow from the first K and no one went with them.

Not only that but in Paris Alamirew ran the world lead of like 12:58 or 12:59.

Like I said before, Galen is a racer. Besides the handful of American record attempts, he wants to win. Once the pace is bad from the get go he’s going to run to win, not to get a record

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?

You think Ben True has a chance.... That's funny!

cheesewiz wrote:

The pacing in both of those races was pretty bad. In Oslo the pacers went out super fast and then over corrected and slowed the field down. In Paris the pacers were slow from the first K and no one went with them.

Not only that but in Paris Alamirew ran the world lead of like 12:58 or 12:59.

Like I said before, Galen is a racer. Besides the handful of American record attempts, he wants to win. Once the pace is bad from the get go he’s going to run to win, not to get a record

Rupp didn't win the race in any of his SIXTEEN fastest outdoor 5000m times (only won races over 13:20) and his indoor record was one of those glorified cheesy time trial races that you guys seem to hate.

Running to win doesn’t mean you always win. Rupp’s kick has rarely been his strong point. I don’t think it’s surprising that in fast races he gets out kicked by people than can kick off fast paces. And 2010s is a whole era of guys that had to have fantastic kicks in order to win because always Mo Farah was racing in championships. If Galen was running 5ks now where more races are fast from the gun I think he would would have better 5k times.

Still don’t see how that makes Lopez better tho

The point was that you can’t say that Rupp didn’t chase times, several times, in the 5000m by trying to excuse it as just running to win considering he basically never won. I wouldn’t say Lomong has a greater career than Rupp over 5000m but it’s not like Rupp is a top 3 greatest Americans over 5000m either.

the beagle wrote:

The point was that you can’t say that Rupp didn’t chase times, several times, in the 5000m by trying to excuse it as just running to win considering he basically never won. I wouldn’t say Lomong has a greater career than Rupp over 5000m but it’s not like Rupp is a top 3 greatest Americans over 5000m either.

Who said anything about Rupp being in the top 3 for 5k? Lagat is probably the only current guy that belongs in that group.

No one explicitly said he was top 3, but a guy did allude to the 5k being weak because Rupp (and Lagat) aren’t in it anymore. Not that weak with the subtraction of the one-time US champ.

Ethiopian marathon team is insanely hard to make with the following guys running times in the all time top 25 since 2018.

Bekele

Legese

Geremew

Wasihun

Molla

Lemma

Negasa

Alayew

Gebresilase

Tola

Mengstu

And World Champion Desisa is not even on that list