I bet Wiley could have run 4:01 in that heat. All she needs is some competition to push her and Simpson's collegiate record is gone. O'Sullivan just made herself an early favorite for NCAAs, though.
Sophie is a genuinely nice person who happens to run fast. She PR'd today in a championship setting, putting herself out there against people clearly better than her. Nothing beats Sarah Healy lining up against the WR-holder, but sometimes that's how the cookie crumbles. Absolutely delighted for Sophie's accomplishments. She let a gap form that took too much energy to close when she could have used her closing speed to try honing in a couple of women in front of her in the homestretch. A gifted person who did well with her talents.
I bet Wiley could have run 4:01 in that heat. All she needs is some competition to push her and Simpson's collegiate record is gone. O'Sullivan just made herself an early favorite for NCAAs, though.
I bet Wiley could have run 4:01 in that heat. All she needs is some competition to push her and Simpson's collegiate record is gone. O'Sullivan just made herself an early favorite for NCAAs, though.
O'Sullivan, 4:02.15
Wiley, 4:03.22
O'Sullivan faster, but Wiley has a higher ceiling.
Now how do folks feel about little qs? O'Sullivan and Vissa would have advanced under old system.
All track qualifying should be by the fastest times only, the same as is always done in swimming.
The only exception should be if there are rare different weather conditions between heats.
Track competitions would greatly advance by making this change, because the current system always results in slowing things down.
They ran fast because the heat they were in was the fastest, and they were 7/8 in their heat, and almost qualifying. That they ran fast says the system works - no need for a time-qualifiers. Again an advantage for the later heat qualifiers as they know what the earlier heats have run in a time-only scenario, no different than little q's. The purpose of rounds is to weed out the better racers/ better runners from those who are not. That swimmers may need to go fast in a morning prelim and can do so again in an evening final, shows that the sport is completely different. Sprinters do that (100m/110mH), but no way a 800/1500m runner can do that if they are maxed out in the earlier round.
Why do you care if the qualifying rounds are slow? what difference does it make to you? I like that athletes have to beat others, regardless of their time. The athlete who runs 1/10th of a second faster than someone not in their heat, but gets through anyway is an unfair system if they were the same place/position in their respective heats.
Take off the blinkers, she has just run an Olympic qualifying time, bar injury, she will almost certainly line up in Paris, this backs up, a European u23 gold (beating a 4.01 athlete), as well as running a 59 sec last lap to win her division of the European athletics laegue,
Wiley has done well to be fair, but to say Sophie hasn't "entered her territory" is obtuse.
Help us build the best running shoe review site for a chance to win a LetsRun t-shirt.Help us build the best running shoe review site for a chance to win one of 10 LetsRun t-shirts.