Cheptegei, Ahmed and Chelimo in the 2 Mile at the Pre Classic. Any predictions?

oldoldrunner wrote:

zxccxzv wrote:

I love Grijalva and he is a great story, but he grew up in Arizona, to my knowledge.

Fairfield, California since age 3. Armijo HS

My bad. It was Nur who went to an Arizona high school.

Barega is talking about moving to the roads: any chance of a half debut in Copenhagen?

In 2019 Barega was also 19 years old….while Cheptegei was 22, the prime age of athletic performance.

Barega is the stronger runner this year, while Cheptegei is past his prime (still incredible).

Great post! I was under the impression he didn’t push much in the second half of races, but it appears I erred towards recency bias.

big daddy wrote:

Only one human on this earth has ever run back to back sub 4 miles, and that man is Daniel Komen, and that will still be the case after Pre. Geb took multiple cracks at it and came back empty-handed each time. 7:58 is not soft. Hope this helps.

This is correct. These knuckleheads need to put their calculators back in their shirt pockets because a sub 8 isn't happening. Look at Komen's profile across the distances and he was unique in his ability to run this distance.

birdbeard wrote:

I'll go with a repeat of the Pre 2-mile in 2019 -- Cheptegei outkicks Barega, Chelimo comes on strong late but it isn't enough, Kiplimo 4th.

1. Cheptegei 8:04.2

2. Barega 8:04.8

3. Chelimo 8:06.1

4. Kiplimo 8:08

Well I got the order right. Times were a bit off.

birdbeard wrote:

birdbeard wrote:

I'll go with a repeat of the Pre 2-mile in 2019 -- Cheptegei outkicks Barega, Chelimo comes on strong late but it isn't enough, Kiplimo 4th.

1. Cheptegei 8:04.2

2. Barega 8:04.8

3. Chelimo 8:06.1

4. Kiplimo 8:08

Well I got the order right. Times were a bit off.

Well done!

RoadWarrior77 wrote:

All three medalists about to run in the two mile at Hayward this weekend. I think Komen's WR is just a bit out of reach, but I think Cheptegei takes the win in 8:05.

What do you guys think?

https://www.worldathletics.org/competitions/diamond-league/news/eugene-diamond-league-pre-classic-olympic-medallists

Cheptegei is probably in 12:49-50 fitness right now.

And I think one needs to be in sub 12:41 5k fitness to have a shot at a sub 8 min 2 miles.

Is there a reason you and Barney23 are such awful people? Would love to see if you talk to your friends that way.

This is a running message board, people are titled to their opinions and allowed to talk about running…but berating others for their opinions is childish and just rude.

I’m certain I’ve been involved in this sport, contributed to it, and watched it a lot longer than you have. I’ve reported both your posts.

Barega lost by 0.3 seconds. He and Cheptegei are clearly # 1 and 2 distance runners in the world right now. I still think Barega is the stronger overall runner, as evidenced by his victory at the Olympics. This was a great run by Joshua today! However, any astute observer would agree he is not in the form of last year or 2019.

Can’t wait for Barega and Ingebrigsten to match up over 3000 next week. That should be FAST!

Actually…it doesn’t “suck to be wrong” at all. Being wrong is part of life. Recognizing when you are is part of maturity. And learning from when you are is called wisdom.

John Wesley Harding is a great poster on this forum. Try harder to contribute like him.

Observing that Barega is in top notch form and that Cheptegei is very gradually on the decline (still incredible, as I noted) would hardly be showing one knows “nothing”.

Now go home devastated, Internet trash.

Eh the margin today was not really indicative of the race. Did you see the race? Cheptegei jogged it in celebrating.

Don’t see how one could come away from today thinking Barega was the stronger runner right now. Cheptegei handled him pretty easily. Barega had better tactics in the 10,000 in Tokyo but Cheptegei was closing well on him, he just ran out of real estate because he was in 6th or something going into the final lap. I actually thought today was interesting from a tactics perspective. Cheptegei was clearly keying off Barega. He made sure he was in great position going into the last lap and had no sign of weakness when Barega challenged him in the backstretch. I think he learned a good lesson on the 10,000. But it will be a nice rivalry for a long time.

I was going to start a new post, but this will do.

1. Cheptegei proved everyone wrong on his kicking abilities. I’ve been defending his kick for a long time on these threads. So Letsrun haters go home devistated, LOL!

2. When Cheptegei follows Mo’s rule #2 (made up by me, I don’t what the other rules are) be in the lead at the start of the last lap and make the kickers sprint hard from 300 to 200 and save some kick for the last hundred. He wins!

Cheptegei lead at the start of the last lap at the Doha 10, Tokyo 5k and today’s Pre 2mile. He won each of those races. Like you state above Cheptegei was in 5 or 6th to start the last lap if the Tokyo 10k and he was beaten.

Once again, Cheptegei said best, I can better off of a fast pace than a slow one.

This was one race. Do not read too much into it. Barega got his gold. This one meant very little to him.

Funny, it’s almost as if tactics is a part of running…

Barega still has the better head to head record, and won the only race that mattered for both of them (Olympic 10k), which is why I think he’s stronger. Also think Barega has trained more for 10k-half while Cheptegei’s sweet spot right now is 5k.

Regardless, this is the best rivalry we’ve had at these distances since Haile/Tergat!

Very excited about the current “Big 3” in distance/middle distance:

Jakob, Selemon, and Joshua are all fantastic, young, and have a lot of top performances left in them.

The rest of the world isn’t far behind!!!