11 Americans have run 1:59.57 or faster this year. Kaela Edwards hasn't broken 2:00 and yet she's going to Worlds. How?

Hi Rojo, hopefully some context will help you understand it further. The United States usually sends the top 3 athletes in any given event at their national meet (provided they meet the qualifying mark and/or rank high enough to qualify.)

Kaela Edwards placed within the top 3 during the a tactical 800m race at National championship meet (and accrued enough points via the ranking system); this is how she is going to World Champs ahead of athletes who may have run faster times.
Hope this helps 🌹

That's not difficult to understand.

Two reasons:

1) SBs don’t mean anything. A fast DL race in May where you get a great time means nothing come July.

2) Executing and getting to the front in a race that matters is way different than following a pack.

Additionally, the women’s 800 is probably the most competitive field of any event.

I wouldn’t overthink it.

On your list you have a college athlete (Rose) who peaked a month earlier and is relatively new to the event. Two athletes who beat Edwards. 3 athletes that contested the 1500 instead in Wiley, Mu and Hiltz. One athlete who had a physical issue that ended her season (Ajee), and then an athlete having a down season and couldn’t even make the final (Allie Wilson). Another (Detra) having a career season but couldn’t make the final. So with all that carnage Edwards had a better day than Hurta Klecker who’s been pretty inconsistent this year.

You used to post all the time on here that Steve Holman was a choker for racing fast times in meaningless Euro meets but not showing up when it mattered. Do you like to argue just to argue or has your opinion of meaningless Euro meets changed?

She is like the car that emerged from a massive traffic pileup unscathed, while much more expensive vehicles crashed and burned.

Got to admit, I would have lost my shirt if someone wanted to bet me that Edwards would be advancing to Budapest. No way in Hades did I think she'd be Top 3 let alone make the final.

Let's also not forget that she got top 3 at US indoors as well. It didn't have all the big names, but US 800m running is good enough that (even with not all of the heavy-hitters) it was still a pretty good field to get the best of and get on the podium. (Just noticed that she ran the exact same time in both races to the hundredth, talk about clockwork.)

These rules are relatively new aren't they? I mean who'd think the top three at the national championships or Olympic trials would get the spot on the team if they are qualified.

Are you new to this message board? If there is anything rojo does well, it is creating a controversy where there is none. That generates page view counts.

Kaela Edwards ran the smartest race out of everyone on the track. Early on, the commentator states that the race was full of front runners and true to form there was a crew of women out in about 28 flat. They held on for about 75 meters and came through 300m in 42 point, but then slowed considerably, running the 4th hundred in 15 point to arrive at 58.37 for the leader. So somewhere close to 300m they all hit the brakes and were never able to make another move. The race was won in 1:59.50, so they ran 61 over the last 400m (approximately 31, 30 for the splits from 400m to 600m and 600m to the finish). Watch Edwards' race and she sits back just enough to avoid the congestion early. She is still probably under 29 seconds at 200m, but around 43.5 seconds at 300m. She proceeds to run 44 point from 300m to 600m fairly evenly, riding the shoulders of the eventual qualifiers and moving past the others as they fade. It looks like Kaela knew her fitness and built a race plan around that instead of building a race plan around everyone else. She ran what she could and on a day where others made mistakes, it was enough to send her to the world championships. She surprised Rojo, myself, and many others, possibly including herself. But I bet she wasn't surprised by her own performance or her execution, just surprised that even running her perfect race was enough to get her there. Let's not forget though that the men's race was won in 1:46.20. They weren't out blazing fast by world class 800m standards, but that was a high quality group of athletes who were out in about 51.5. 51.5 to 1:46.20 is similar to the women's race being out in 58.3 and ending in 1:59.50. Although the qualifiers may not have been super surprising, how many of the other men in that race are still kicking themselves for not staying out of the fray early and moving by at the end. I think everyone who was in the men's race was capable of running under 1:46.20 off of a clean 52.3 first 400m. That's the difference. In the women's 800m, Kaela stayed back a little bit and stayed clean.

She's like the 1998 Camry in the pileup.

A complete dumpster fire, but somehow still shows up

Absolutely right. I wish more people actually got the bust in the chops they deserve.

Damn right, Rojo, you genius. Instead of earning your spot by running a qualifying time for the meet and then showing you can race three rounds and finish in the top 3, we should switch to selection by USATF where coaches and agents plead their ca$e$ and Max $eigel gets to decide! Think how fun that would be!

Did they change the format at worlds this year where they now award medals based on season bests? Good move, they can just mail the medals out, no need for travel.

Rojo, are you saying this negatively or positively? That is,

"it seems wild she made the team...we should be sending someone else"

or

"it seems wild she made the team...great job performing when it counts"

?