TrackCoach wrote:
Nothing special about this performance!
4:16 for a 400/800 athlete at Athing's level at most just says her conditioning is good. It is kind of like sub-10 100m sprinter running an early season 47x quarter.
Those splits suggest even pacing would be 4:09.7. Also, she was in the lead at each split (300, 700, 1100), so is there a little more time to be gained from drafting (although if she had inside position for the whole race, that maybe cancels out benefit from drafting)?
And she won by 1.8 sec, so she possibly could have run faster if pushed harder.
But the point is- the race is worth a lot more than 4:16. (Due to pacing). I’m not saying to be impressed or surprised, or not. But fact is, she’s probably a 4:09-4:10 1500 runner now.