When I was in high school, my favorite event was the 1000. My senior year, I had a PR of 2:30. This got me ranked inside the top 30 nationally. By rankings, I should’ve been a sub-4:15 guy, maybe even sub-4:10. However, I only ran 4:18, and that was OUTDOORS. And that was a great race! I consider it a very similar performance.
The point I’m trying to make is that it’s true that rankings don’t mean much for the 1000. For whatever reason, you get a lot of guys that are very quick over 800 and 1500, that underperform at the in-between distance. 2:16 is not worth 1:43 and 3:31. That is clear.
That said, the fact that he just shattered the US U20 record, and is 4th all-time in the world, DOES mean something. 2:16 may not be worth what other 2:16 guys ran on their best day, but it’s certainly one of, if not his best performance yet. It’s equivalent to roughly 1:44-1:45 and 3:33-3:34. We’ll have to see how it goes, but I would be unsurprised to see a 1500 PR in the coming weeks, perhaps working his way into the top 25 all-time for U20 (he’s currently 31).
More than anything, I am relieved to see a lot of the negative discourse surrounding him disappear. Anybody that’s ever run competitively could’ve expected him to have off races this year; it’s just the “sophomore slump”. Look at Athing for a similar story. Luckily Ron Warhurst is a lot more knowledgeable than any of you, and I expect we will see some huge times from Hobbs eventually. It starts here.