Eilish McColgan takes down Letesenbet Giey at FBK Games in Hengelo - 30:19.02 FTW

Nice result for her!

Winning by 35 seconds had to feel surreal.

Boots on the ground. Rainy at a few points, but never too heavy. Swirling wind, but wasn't bad a track level.

Eilish was solo from Lap 1. They had Wavelight and she was on Radcliffe's record for maybe 2.5k, but she still gutted out an amazing time.

Rest of the race was an Ethiopian sit and kick. Gidey impressed closing as usual. Was a little disappointed by Yehualaw's performance, but she's still only like 5 weeks off Hamburg marathon, so...

Faith K. looked great in the 800. Johan looked pretty decent in the 100, considering the weather. Men's 400H was absolute carnage on the wet track, I think 4 runners went down.

A bizarre take. How was that race practice? OK you can say Eilish was in an event of her own, but she went went as hard as she could for as long as she could against the clock for a huge PB. It was race against time, not really competition. Still considering she wasn't rabbited and there was no safety net for her like in a practice, it was a creditable performance.

The Ethiopians and a few other racers battled each other for 3 spots with no pacemaker and positioning against each other all that matters.

Practice is carefully orchestrated, but this had no orchestration. It was a real race and places 4th and 5th I'm sure aren't happy with how it went.

With your first line, I'd think of a race with 1 finisher (2 hr marathon, New Balance DMR, Bowerman 4x1500) or a race where every detail is ironed out for a time trial (e.g. some time trial attempts).

The ETH Q system is from Bizzaroland.

I assume Shamier Little went down in the women's 400H race as well? I thought Bol would run faster but it makes more sense now after getting insight on the weather

For this one, I'm a bit confused by people thinking it's weird. The only weird thing is having foreign athletes (who are competitive at the front) in the race. Otherwise it's top 3 crossing the line. The men's race yesterday was basically the exact same as a USA 10,000m qualifier except for a few non-factor athletes from other countries.

Didn't see that, but she was way back, so definitely at least clipped one hard. I think most of them were just trying to get out of there with 2 ankles.

So you're saying the US Olympic Trials should be an open race now? Ethiopia and Kenya should run the US Marathon Trials?

No, I think it’s a bit odd to have athletes from different nationalities in there. Not much material impact on the men’s race and we can agree it’s better than how they’re selecting their 5000m team, right?

What is more surreal is your arithmetic.

What’s odd is the title of the thread, “takes her down for the win….” I guess this is correct strictly speaking, but this misses what in fact transpired. There was a solo TT and then a track race 30 sec behind. Nobody in the pack cared one bit about the leader. I do agree it’s a bit odd have a national qualifier with non nationals running too, but I guess in the end it’s not likely to matter and each governing body can do what it wants in this regard. Why not have the US marathon qualifier be a spring major rather than a stand alone race? Would the US 10000 team had been any different if Barega and Kiplimo were in the race too? Probably not.

Great result.

Well it certainly could’ve been a lot more interesting if you plopped them into the race yesterday or similar. But it may not have been actually cuz judging by the Bowerman race plan of wait til the last 400, it’s pretty unlikely they’d go with a 13:21 first 5k with some uneven pacing. Maybe Bor would have. Very possible the Americans just let the Ethiopian pack go and get lapped.

True, but it seems embarrassing. Gidey. the fastest 10000 runner of all time, a generational talent, a goat, wins the ETH trials against quality competition in a race where she simultaneously loses to McColgan, a solid, but generally unremarkable world level athlete with a pr more than 1 minute slower, by such a wide margin. Would Jakob have let this happen? Remember when he went for the 5000 standard? He said after he just can’t bear to lose, so he won even when it was not necessary. You would just think the top Ethiopians would be like hell no, we are not going to lose to Eilish during OUR trials. Weird sport…..

But that is why you are playing checkers and they are playing chess.

Would it really be that taxing for Gidey to win this race? I like Jakob’s attitude. He was like f-ck it, I may be running for the standard, but I’m not going to lose. Just can’t abide it…..Love that. A true champion.

When the goal is to make the team, you focus on making the team. That was her focus. McColgan was somewhat irrelevant to her. It was a master lesson in focus. That is what great athletes do. They focus on what is important at the time.

So how do you explain Jakob at the sound running meet? Jakob v Klecker is probably like Gidey v McColgan. Jakob was just not going to let those B teamers beat him and be able to tell their children they did.

Jakob was in an entirely different situation. He was trying to get a qualifying time. He was not trying to place in the top 3 among his countrymen. One must always focus on what matters at the time. Jakob did not risk much at all in terms of his goal in going for the win, especially in moving later in the race. For Gidey, trying to beat McColgan exposes her to some greater risk. She was smart to not take the bait. She knew what mattered.