I think the lights should be shut off after a certain point. I like them for keeping the pacers on track, but not a huge fan of someone running against the lights to break a record. Feels like one of the hardest parts of breaking a record is fighting to keep the pace up when you are all alone after the pacers drop.
Runners can’t draft off of them and elites are quite capable of holding a pace without them. Bekele didn’t have pacers for the 2nd half of his 10000m WR and Komen for the last 1000m of his 3K record but both held the pace. I doubt if running a perfect pace and having slight variations in lap times makes any difference.
1:59 was much more than the same concept as the benefit of drag reduction with the group formation was very significant, and also to a lesser extent being handed drinks by cyclists.
As I said before, you can’t draft off of them. Many of the past WRs have had very even pacing. The only difference pacing lights can provide is to avoid minimal variations in lap times. How much faster would Komen have run had he used pacer lights? Using the old shoes, how many current runners could keep up with lights set for 7:20.7 pace?
Does J.I. have any brothers good enough to pace J.I. through 1200m at W.C. sub-2:52? I don't believe J.I. can do it. No rabbits, no wave lights, no brother will be in 1500m final, no S. McSewyn. That slow 800m means game on for the other elite 1500m runners.
Maybe, maybe not. I have talked to some world class runners and their coaches after races with wave light technology and some of them didn't understand the pace that the lights were set for.
For example, that even includes Bowerman coach Shalane Flanagan, who at one race had requested the lights be set up a certain way for one of her athletes but during the race got confused and thought the lights were doing one thing when they were actually doing something else.
So yes, even top runners and/or their coaches sometimes get confused.
And the stadium announcers sometimes get confused too and make inaccurate announcements, which doesn't help the situation.
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Those lights are stupidest cheap communist gimmick in sports.
Does J.I. have any brothers good enough to pace J.I. through 1200m at W.C. sub-2:52? I don't believe J.I. can do it. No rabbits, no wave lights, no brother will be in 1500m final, no S. McSewyn. That slow 800m means game on for the other elite 1500m runners.
If Cheruiyot can win by setting a hard pace from the gun, why do you believe Jakob can’t do the same thing? He’s not the Olympic champion for nothing.
Does J.I. have any brothers good enough to pace J.I. through 1200m at W.C. sub-2:52? I don't believe J.I. can do it. No rabbits, no wave lights, no brother will be in 1500m final, no S. McSewyn. That slow 800m means game on for the other elite 1500m runners.
If Cheruiyot can win by setting a hard pace from the gun, why do you believe Jakob can’t do the same thing? He’s not the Olympic champion for nothing.
We will see, Tim is an outlier in the history of running with front-running, nobody else has ever soloed a sub 3:30. I have no doubt Jakob could do it as well if he chooses to, but if Tim gets to draft off of him for 1400m might we see a reverse of Tokyo in that final 100m?
In Doha in 2019 when Tim ran 3:29 everybody was caught off guard and nobody went with him. People are ready for it now, can Jakob push the pace fast enough to drop the field? We will see how it shakes out, I am excited to see.