He hasn't beaten Cheptegei on the track (though he is younger) in a major event - he is better on the roads. He might be the best out of the Barega/Aregawi 2000s age distance group in the end once he moves to the marathon
I liked it, quality field, English fella stepped off when he realised he had no business out there. Kiplimo is class and Ky Robinson is developing at a rapid rate.
Does Kiplimo just not try when Cheptegei is in the race on a track?
Wins a 27:09 race that went 13:46/13:23 today, closing the last 2kilometers in a phenomenal 5:03 = 2:33.9/2:29.3.
Compare this with Cheptegei in Eugene: a 27:27 race that went 14:01/13:26, last 2k in 5:09 = 2:43/2:25.7 .
I presume conditions were much better here than in Eugene but Kiplimo is really something. I suppose he probably ran in Eugene on something like 6 weeks of training and now he's got 8 or whatever under his belt. Still surprising he doesn't take the golds in WC and Olympics on the track. Not many can handle 5:03 last 2k.
If this trend continues, we should see peak Kiplimo in Newcastle on Sep 11. Let's hope Kandie shows up for some payback!
Sam Atkins is totally soft as butter. If he knows he can't win he just pulls the plug immediately. I hope he stops getting in races if this is what he keeps doing.
Sam Atkins is totally soft as butter. If he knows he can't win he just pulls the plug immediately. I hope he stops getting in races if this is what he keeps doing.
I really enjoyed the 10k last night, an exciting race, the crowd was going nuts for all the athletes, there was great support for the Tanzanian who was dropped early.
Sam Atkin was disappointing and shouldnt of lined up if he was injured and knew dropping out might happen. Places in the English commonwealth team were highly prized as they were so limited with top class athletes with qualifying sat home who wouldve relished competing in a homes commonwealth games.
Atkin is a good runner, has run 27:26 and 13:03. He is not soft to run those times and I've seen him win very few pro races if any so claiming he drops out when he can't win is nonsense. He would have known he had no shot of beating Kiplimo. Very strange performance last night though. Atkin went out at 26:40 pace leading for the first 2k. First K was 2:39 and second 2:41. He must have known there was no way he could maintain that. It was like he was doing a pace making job but no one went with it. The only thing I could think is that he was asked to make it a fast race and had no intention of finishing. Not sure why he would do that though.
Great race to watch with Kiplimo and second place battling the until the final 200. Kandie ran 27:20 and couldn't handle the pace showing he would have been a complete non factor at world's despite Rojo's outrage of him not being able to compete.
The reason the fields are so small in some events is that each country gets a total number of athletes they can pick depending on population. England for example can select 70 track and field athletes despite having 140 with qualifying standards. The qualification standards are very hard anyway. I think it's something to do with it being difficult for host countries to afford the cost of hosting the games so they started limiting numbers. It means you get ridiculous situations where there is only 9 in the 10k and one English and one Scottish runner and there was only 16 runners in the women's marathon and one English runner. Ideally being a home games there should be 3 from each home nation country in every event provided there is enough with the standard. It's a bit disappointing. The standard in most events up front so far has been pretty high though and the stadium has been packed out.
Great race to watch with Kiplimo and second place battling the until the final 200. Kandie ran 27:20 and couldn't handle the pace showing he would have been a complete non factor at world's despite Rojo's outrage of him not being able to compete.
The reason the fields are so small in some events is that each country gets a total number of athletes they can pick depending on population. England for example can select 70 track and field athletes despite having 140 with qualifying standards. The qualification standards are very hard anyway. I think it's something to do with it being difficult for host countries to afford the cost of hosting the games so they started limiting numbers. It means you get ridiculous situations where there is only 9 in the 10k and one English and one Scottish runner and there was only 16 runners in the women's marathon and one English runner. Ideally being a home games there should be 3 from each home nation country in every event provided there is enough with the standard. It's a bit disappointing. The standard in most events up front so far has been pretty high though and the stadium has been packed out.
Wrong allocation was 90 plus but paras had to have their quota
Great race to watch with Kiplimo and second place battling the until the final 200. Kandie ran 27:20 and couldn't handle the pace showing he would have been a complete non factor at world's despite Rojo's outrage of him not being able to compete.
It's a hypothetical, so who knows. Kandie went to run Peachtree against Rhonex Kipruto right after he found out he was out. He got beat soundly by Rhonex with both of them sleeping in Doha overnight due to flight troubles. But it's not like he got substantially worse from Kenyan Trials where he beat the eventual silver medalist Mburu with a huge kick.
Kandie himself seemed confused by his performance yesterday, giving credit to 1st and 2nd but unsure why he couldn't hang with it and then kick them down the last two laps. He's a bit of an enigma, but he seems at least a little more consistent in the half marathons he does and most of his Road 10KMs are pretty good. Cross Country and Track? Hard to know what you're gonna get.