Josh Kerr runs 1:46.3 800m (55.8 then 50.5!)

SleepingFireman wrote:

Does anyone have a link to a video of this?

Now thats how you call a race. Those announcers are incredible. Not knocking Kara Goucher at all, but this guy is at another level. I felt like I was watching the Kentucky Derby.

Jimmy Alberione wrote:

He is no threat to Tim. All this shows is he did not trust himself to go faster in the first lap which means he would doubt himself to go with Tim's pace. He will be in contention for the minor medals like the other decent 5 or 6 guys.

.....

Kerr is a talented runner but I agree with quoted poster. Can run 1:43, not this year maybe 1:44.8 at best. Can he win a medal, Yes. Can he win Gold? Possible but highly unlikely. Like the late Whitney Houston once said, "hell to the naw, naw, naw "

Are we really that impressed with a 1:46 from Kerr?? He has always been more of an 800-1500 guy than a 1500-5k guy. So I'd expect his 800 to be decent. Just like Engels. Yet Engels ran 1:44 the same year of 2019 world championships. Engels didn't take that speed to get a medal. I think Kerr running 1:46 doesn't really mean anything, it just means he's not in terrible shape, but it certainly doesn't prove he's going to win a medal. A lot of 1500 guys going to the olympics could run 1:46 this weekend if they ran an 800. 1500 meter runners who don't even make US championships can run 1:50, lots of 1500 meter runners from the US who don't make the olympics can run 1:47/1:48... I'd bet all 3 of our guys would run 1:46 right now. Centro could probably run 1:45 high right now in the 800. His PR is 1:44, he just ran a mile PR. Maybe his 800 speed isn't in PR shape, but certainly better than 1:46.

Man you just missed the whole point of that race.

Are we really that impressed? wrote:

Are we really that impressed with a 1:46 from Kerr?? He has always been more of an 800-1500 guy than a 1500-5k guy. So I'd expect his 800 to be decent. Just like Engels. Yet Engels ran 1:44 the same year of 2019 world championships. Engels didn't take that speed to get a medal. I think Kerr running 1:46 doesn't really mean anything, it just means he's not in terrible shape, but it certainly doesn't prove he's going to win a medal.

He ran 1:46 in practice, with a 5 second negative split, was barely winded and talking to camera/coach within seconds, plus followed up with a swift 300 and 200.

It was impressive.

Don't see him as an 800/1500 runner either - for me he is a true miler, with good ability at under/over distance but very much at his best in the middle. Similar indeed to Centrowitz - at 23, Centro had also run 3:31, and was at 1:45.8/13:47 as against Kerr's 1:45.5/13:23. Fully expect Kerr to be around Centro's 1:44.6/13:00 by the end of his twenties.

Let it Rupp wrote:

Number 33 wrote:

He ran the last 300m in 37 seconds. He also likes to push it from further out but was blocked in in a ridiculously large field until the bell.

You don't know what a clean elite runner kicking looks like.

They say doping killed training theory, it also killed intelligent comments from the likes of you.

He ran the last 300 in 38 seconds, in a race that was almost 5 seconds slower than the US final.

No it wasn't! Kerr went through 1200m in 3:03.2 and finished in 3:40.72, which is a 37.5 last 300m. Hocker's last 300m in the US trials was 38.6, more than a second slower. Yes, his finishing time was 5 secs faster overall, but if you compare each athlete's closing splits, Kerr's are at least as impressive as Hocker's.

Last 700m, 600, 400, 300, 200, 100

Hocker - 1:20.9, 52.5, 38.6, 25.3, 12.3

Kerr - 1:20.0, 51.3, 37.5, 25.0, 12.4

He says he is more of a 15/3k guy than an 8/15 runner in interviews. In his recent Athletics Weekly interview he compares himself to Jake Wightman and says he is more strength-based than the other Brit. That training time trial is worth about a 1:44 low IMO and half of it was run solo without him seeming particularly fatigued.

In a perfect race he is in 1:43.XX shape for sure.

I think you miss the point.

It is not his final 800m time of 1:46.3 that is impressive, but rather his 2nd 400m of 50.5! There are few pure 800m runners that can do that, so coming from a miler, it shows he has incredible finishing speed and is capable of much faster in an overall faster paced 800m: perhaps a 1:44 flat or faster in a perfectly paced effort.

The fastest last 400m in any Olympic 800m final is (also) 50.5 from Ovett in his 1:45.4 win in Moscow 80.

Kerr's run is not far off that in terms of ability.

Incredible negative split.

lol kerr is def a true miler, but i dont ever see him as a 13 flat 5k guy unless the shoes just keep getting better.

te5n1k wrote:

lemmy from motorhead wrote:

He ran 1:46 in practice, with a 5 second negative split, was barely winded and talking to camera/coach within seconds, plus followed up with a swift 300 and 200.

It was impressive.

Don't see him as an 800/1500 runner either - for me he is a true miler, with good ability at under/over distance but very much at his best in the middle. Similar indeed to Centrowitz - at 23, Centro had also run 3:31, and was at 1:45.8/13:47 as against Kerr's 1:45.5/13:23. Fully expect Kerr to be around Centro's 1:44.6/13:00 by the end of his twenties.

lol kerr is def a true miler, but i dont ever see him as a 13 flat 5k guy unless the shoes just keep getting better.

lol all you like, he's run two 5000s in his life and is one of the best milers in the world, stupid to think he's incapable of running a time 12 seconds slower than similarly built jakob ingebrigtsen has run at 20.

As soon as I saw this thread I knew that Kerr would medal. In the right race he really was a gold medal threat. Best kick in track and field.