It's officia: Timothy Cheruiyot replaces Kamar Etyang on Kenyan Olympic squad

Great for the final, will Jakob beat Cheruiyot for the first time in the olympic final? would be a great storyline. Or will potato tim win using a solo effort again? how will he tackle the 35 degress celcius warm weather? Does this hurt Cole Hockers and Centros medal chances by making the race hard?

It's ironic that doping in Kenya leads to their best guy getting back in the team after failing to qualify.

Haha yea its ironi, but it illustrates how bad Athletics Kenya are at doping testing their athletes when a 3:33 guy has not been tested 3 times out of competition. I wonder how many times a US 3:33 guy like craig engels has been tested, maybe 50 times the last 4 years?

That's the end of Hocker and Centro's medal hopes. Good for the sport that the best in the world will be in the field

albertwo wrote:

Haha yea its ironi, but it illustrates how bad Athletics Kenya are at doping testing their athletes when a 3:33 guy has not been tested 3 times out of competition. I wonder how many times a US 3:33 guy like craig engels has been tested, maybe 50 times the last 4 years?

The guy's previous PB going into the race was 3:36.8. So he was NOT a 3:33 guy by any means. If it weren't for Tim Cheruiyot setting the face pace he is pretty unlikely to have gotten the standard at Trials anyhow.

Good news

Charlie Chaplin wrote:

It's ironic that doping in Kenya leads to their best guy getting back in the team after failing to qualify.

You mean, anti-doping in Kenya. Thanks Coevett.

Great to see Cheruiyot in the field. To be the best, you have to beat the best. A gold medal with him out would have been hollow.

Perfect for Jakob Ingebrigtsen. A fast final.

This is great. The number 1 ranked runner in the world should be able to run in the olympics. I'd be fine with some rule that the top 3 currently ranked runners in the world get to compete in the olympics and don't count as the 3 selected for the country. Meaning if your country is so good that they have one of the top 3 runners in the world, then get an extra spot to the olympics and would be able to send 4 athletes if they have enough athletes with the qualification standard. Similar to how the defending gold medalist gets an auto qualification to worlds.

albertwo wrote:

I wonder how many times a US 3:33 guy like craig engels has been tested, maybe 50 times the last 4 years?

According to their database, USADA tested him (or had him tested, if he's overseas) 20x in the last four years:

2021 = 7

2020 = 5

2019 = 6

2018 = 2

Only a handful of runners got tested > 10x/year by USADA. Mostly, these are the usual suspects -- Rupp, sprinters, and people who run and win a lot.

Caveat: The USADA database only includes tests that were requested or initiated by the USADA. So tests of Engels asked for by the AIU would not be counted, even if he was tested out-of-competition in the US.

KaareV wrote:

Perfect for Jakob Ingebrigtsen. A fast final.

Good for Jakob and also McSweyn, who will want a fast pace. Bad for Centro who has shown much of a kick in a sub-3:30 race.

consequences wrote:

KaareV wrote:

Perfect for Jakob Ingebrigtsen. A fast final.

Good for Jakob and also McSweyn, who will want a fast pace. Bad for Centro who has shown much of a kick in a sub-3:30 race.

Sorry I means Centro has never shown a kick in a sub-3:33 race.

consequences wrote:

Good for Jakob and also McSweyn, who will want a fast pace. Bad for Centro who has shown much of a kick in a sub-3:30 race.

Yes, this will definitely be a different feel for Centrowitz. I do think 2019 is maybe a tough comp for him because although he ran a great 5,000 (13:00.xx) in the lead-up he got beaten by a 3:34 man in Engels at the Trials. This year he is clearly sharper/better at 1500 as we saw with how badly he beat Engels recently. So, maybe this time out he can kick off a faster pace with the 5,000 strength and more speed than he had last year.

Thats true, but USADA still doping tested Johnny Gregorek, a 3:35 guy around 5 times each year since 2017. Also Im pretty sure the trials had pacers, so Cheruiyot didn't pace the whole way.

Thanks for the data! didn't know USADA had this publicly, can't be that many antidoping agancies that are as open about how often they test

THOUGHTSLEADER wrote:

consequences wrote:

Good for Jakob and also McSweyn, who will want a fast pace. Bad for Centro who has shown much of a kick in a sub-3:30 race.

Yes, this will definitely be a different feel for Centrowitz. I do think 2019 is maybe a tough comp for him because although he ran a great 5,000 (13:00.xx) in the lead-up he got beaten by a 3:34 man in Engels at the Trials. This year he is clearly sharper/better at 1500 as we saw with how badly he beat Engels recently. So, maybe this time out he can kick off a faster pace with the 5,000 strength and more speed than he had last year.

I agree, Centro looks real sharp this year. 2019 was probably a rough transition for him from NOP to BTC and I believe he was injured the first half of that year too. I think he will surprise many but then again this field is looking to be an extremely fast and competitive one again. Is Jakob only running the 1500? What's the schedule like does it conflict with the 5000?

wrj wrote:

Charlie Chaplin wrote:

It's ironic that doping in Kenya leads to their best guy getting back in the team after failing to qualify.

You mean, anti-doping in Kenya. Thanks Coevett.

No, I mean the massive doping problem in Kenya which has led to World Athletics setting this minimum test rule which AK still can't manage to reach.

Tim should dedicate his gold medal to the likes of Bett and Kiprop who made it possible for him.

elementtt wrote:

I agree, Centro looks real sharp this year. 2019 was probably a rough transition for him from NOP to BTC and I believe he was injured the first half of that year too. I think he will surprise many but then again this field is looking to be an extremely fast and competitive one again. Is Jakob only running the 1500? What's the schedule like does it conflict with the 5000?

It's doable but difficult with some conflicts yes. Given Jakob's recent illness, it seems a stretch that he would double when I'd doubt he'd do it even fully healthy.

To the Gregorek thing, he's run 3:34 and 3:49.9 so that got him in the system. This 18-year-old Kenyan had no World Class marks until the Trials race. That's why he wasn't being tested. And I don't believe Kenya's trials had pacers, it's just Tim led out the final at a good pace (2:37ish at the bell).