Cole Hocker isn't competitive on the world stage. The 1 trick for this pony is magically escaping a box coming into the final straight and then edging out the win by milliseconds against weak American field. It's not a long-term winning formula. Especially in the era of the Big 3 (Potatoe Man, Big Haircut and Scottish Mule), who like to kick with precisely 1500m left to go in a 1500m race.
If they had somehow gotten to Belgrade, they would have been destroyed by the Ethiopians. Of what value to them is that? I've been watching the meet and honestly did not miss them. Just getting to the outdoor Worlds is an honor. Not everyone feels that way about World Indoors. With good reason.
They would have been destroyed by Ethipians? Have you been drinking too? Tefera and Lemi don't stand a chance against them. I think one of them would have gotten silver behind Jakob.
Almost exactly 44 years ago, a college soph ran 13:08.4, unpaced, in a triangular meet. The runnerup was 50 seconds behind. To note that this happened well before supershoes is a huge understatement.
Hocker is very, very, good, but somehow, running less than 2 seconds faster after 44 years doesn’t sound all that impressive. I agree with those who would have preferred that he’d run in Belgrade.
Cole Hocker isn't competitive on the world stage. The 1 trick for this pony is magically escaping a box coming into the final straight and then edging out the win by milliseconds against weak American field. It's not a long-term winning formula. Especially in the era of the Big 3 (Potatoe Man, Big Haircut and Scottish Mule), who like to kick with precisely 1500m left to go in a 1500m race.
Cole Hocker isn't competitive on the world stage. The 1 trick for this pony is magically escaping a box coming into the final straight and then edging out the win by milliseconds against weak American field. It's not a long-term winning formula. Especially in the era of the Big 3 (Potatoe Man, Big Haircut and Scottish Mule), who like to kick with precisely 1500m left to go in a 1500m race.
Why are you mocking Dan Quayle? Not conservative enough for you?
Cole Hocker isn't competitive on the world stage. The 1 trick for this pony is magically escaping a box coming into the final straight and then edging out the win by milliseconds against weak American field. It's not a long-term winning formula. Especially in the era of the Big 3 (Potatoe Man, Big Haircut and Scottish Mule), who like to kick with precisely 1500m left to go in a 1500m race.
If lapped runners were kicked out, then the Rio Women’s would have lost all but the top 6 with Molly Huddle hanging on for dear life on the final stretch with them bearing down while she ran an American Record. A better way would be to have a point that if one is lapped before it, then they get kicked out, ie lapped before the mile of a 5K.
But in reality, let’s stop making big deals out of nothing. It’s not much effort to run around someone. It’s done when people are passing them when on the same lap.
Almost exactly 44 years ago, a college soph ran 13:08.4, unpaced, in a triangular meet. The runnerup was 50 seconds behind. To note that this happened well before supershoes is a huge understatement.
Hocker is very, very, good, but somehow, running less than 2 seconds faster after 44 years doesn’t sound all that impressive. I agree with those who would have preferred that he’d run in Belgrade.
Henry was a 26 year old running 13:08, Cole is a 20 year old.
So I'm writing from Serbia where it's 4:15 am. Did this race really happen?
This is quite honestly disgraceful. Not necessarily by them. I get it - they are young. But someone with experience, their agent or coach ,etc. needs to tell them, "This is a bad look. The world needs to be less self-absorbed."
We were told they needed to skip World Indoors as they didn't want to race much so they could get ready for World Outdoors. Instead, they run a mediocre 13:06 on the same day as World Indoors. I mean my god. I used to be a college coach. If they need a hard effort - then a hard 3k at Worlds would have worked perfectly. I don't want to hear a bunch of crap about how the travel would cost them a lot of time - it would have cost them to miss 2 workouts.
And I don't want to hear a bunch of crap about how Teare needs the standard. If he can't hit the standard at Pre, then he shouldn't be considering going to Worlds.
Someone in the comments section of our live podcast asked us what I thought they'd run. I said, "My God, they'd better break 13:00 or I'm irate."
I think another t-shirt needs to be made. "I skipped World Indoors and all I got was this lousy 5k pb."
Weldon is right. When World Athletics issues qualifying standards, the window should only include dates after the end of the indoor season unless the race is run indoors.
It was certainly an impressive performance for both of them, with limited rabbiting, no competition, and -- unusually for Stanford -- wet and breezy conditions.
It's hard to imagine they would not go under 13 in better circumstances.
I don’t love that World Indoors isn’t a true major, but it’s not just Hocker. About 2/3 of the best athletes are missing depending on the event. The scheduling doesn’t help nor does the location for West Coast-based athletes.
I think it's different as Hocker has only domestic achievements so far. People like Kerr and Cheptegei have earned the right to skip World Indoors. Athletes like Hocker, Wightman, and Mantz should be taking these opportunities to actually win something in international competition. You can argue that they're saving themselves for bigger things but between potential injury and the uncertainty of racing, you should be taking every opportunity until you have a record that lets you pass them up
1. As someone posted before, WA needs to do away with standards for countries that have proven they have the athletes to compete. There’s no reason Hocker should have to skip world indoors to get the standard in the outdoor 5k. It’s idiotic.
2. I understand the 10k BTC set up because it was an American record attempt. I’d weigh an American record heavier than a world indoor title. Fisher’s 26:33 is undoubtedly a better result than even an indoor world gold, much less a silver or bronze. Not sure how that’s fixed. Running 13:08 is definitely not better than having a change at an indoor medal.
Good post. I get whey do it. If I was a coach, I'd be tempted to do only what's in my athletes self-interest as well. So I get why Teare and Hocker do it. Those in charge need to help make it so this isn't a) necessary or b) allowed.
2:30 thon wrote: Rojo how much did you have to drink before you posted that? Seriously. All year it's been amazing how BTC puts together time trials for their guys but now that Cooper and Teare do it, it's not ok anymore? Where was Fisher at worlds? I didn't see him there.I
The facts are criticized Fisher as well. But he at least ran a 10k - which is much harder to find - and he broke the AMerican record. When I heard they were running a 10k, I said, "They'd better be going for the AR. If they break it, all is forgiven."
And the criticism really was directed at both of them. I mean I never had the belief that either one of them was planning on going to Worlds.
Someone in the comments section of our live podcast asked us what I thought they'd run. I said, "My God, they'd better break 13:00 or I'm irate."
I think another t-shirt needs to be made. "I skipped World Indoors and all I got was this lousy 5k pb."
lol that would actually be the best LR t-shirt I say go for it
For maximum effect make sure to minimize the font for “indoors” on that shirt ‘cause nobody cares about indoor Worlds (except for Purrier’s silver which was an awesome race).
So are we just not going to talk about the fact that Hocker still hasn't beaten Trade in a race? I get that the two go back and forth, but at this point last year Hocker was routinely kicking Teares teeth in. This year, not so much.
