1:44 mid for a win??? WTF. These guys are a joke. Part time runner Pattison even bronzed here.
Was there any other time the 800 was this bad?
You seem to ignore that the 800 is a middle distance race where tactics play a big role. Not a sprint where everybody is all out from the gun. Rudisha did it once but it's an exception. Winning time of a championship race is completely irrevelant to rate the competitivness of the event.
Rudisha could have staggered out of retirement an won this snoozefest.
Bro closed in a *37.2* last 300m while throwing up both hands and celebrating before the line. Arop smashed that field.
He's stuck right now. Either he rabbits the field to a 1:43 and has people possibly outkick him or he chills, let's others lead and dawdle, then he smashes them. He's done 1:43.2 already, he looks better now, if he had someone to chase I'm sure he could go 1:42.
The 400 meter flat is comparatively weak too right now so don't hold your breath waiting for someone from there moving up - unless of course Warholm (or all of his competitors) does it after his next Olympic Gold in the 400 meter hurdles next year. ;-)
No. There is no superstar (although I'm sure Arop has the potential to go very fast indeed), but the depth is a good as ever.
Look at 2017 ..... 50.7 at the bell, winning time of 1.44.6. And that had the likes of Amos, Aman, 1.41, low 1.42.guys. Yesterday's race was vastly superior in terms of overall quality.
As for Ben Pattison, he may well flown in under the American radar, but for those who have followed him this is no surprise. He's a huge talent, and can hang with just about anyone in the final 100m .... It's putting himself in a position to actually be competitive that's been holding him back.
Yes it’s belief all right. If there’s anything a British guy should not have reason to believe us that he could run under 1:44. Never happened historically. Also Kszcot, Brazier, Murphy, Bosse, Dobek all medaled despite a lack of belief I guess.
It starts at the world junior level with the likes of Kyle Langford even being robbed there.
Where did I say no Europeans medalled? What are you talking about? Who is the European 800 equivalent of Jakob Ingebrigtsen? Wightman and Kerr are running faster than Coe and Cram at 1500. No British are getting close yet at 800. Maybe Burgin and Pattison will. The wave of British 800 talent (Burgin, Pattison, Rowden, Hussey, Dustin etc) was a fee years behind that of the 1500 (Wightman, Kerr, etc). My explanation is as good as any and might have some truth to it.
Just like me, you've never set foot on a track, so shut the f up about presuming to know that a promising young European runner would be unaffected by the knowledge that many of his future 1:42/43 African rivals are or were doping with near impunity. Who knows how a teenage Coe would have kept his self-belief if there were Kenyans doping themselves to sub 1:43 times in the early 1970's.
This is the same insane theory you used to push for the men's 1500m. The idea that white Europeans were put off from running the 1500 because Africans could run under 3:30 and it scared them.
Aside from being insane, it is pretty disrespectful to the European competitors to portray them as being afraid of competition.
The 800m has never been dominated by one country, it's always been a mixed bag. UK has some great young athletes running 1:43/1:44 and in a few years we may be expecting to get an athlete on the podium at the major champs, as we are now in the 1500m.
The idea that competition is detracting athletes from competing is bizarre and shows your own weak disposition, rather than saying anything insightful about the athletes.
I think the 800m is five years behind the 1500m. I think the bust of Asbel Kiprop really energized and gave all the non-African 1500m guys self-belief and motivation, amplified later by Manangoi's suspension.
Aside from Bett's bust, we haven't had the marquee Kenyan name taken down yet. So it's taken a little longer for the belief to return for the 800 men, but now you can see with Ben Pattison today that it's starting.
BTW, it was great watching Pattison just now talking to the BBC and mentioning Kyle Langford's robbed bronze medal by the cheating Bett.
Want to upvote for Pattison's interview. Really mature guy for his age.
Want to downvote for the rest - I don't think it takes a drugs bust to revitalise an event. IMO we were simply spoiled with a great era of men's 800m running (including the greatest individual performance OAT at London 2012). What we're seeing now is closer to a normal level.
The women's 800 and men's 1500 are simply more exciting right now and I say that as a male 800m runner myself. Give it a year or two and it'll come around - I'm banking on another few British medals personally ;)
Are you a licensed psychiatrist? Why are the women so much more mentally tough? After all Keely and Reekie seem to have no problems believing they can be competitive. Your explanation is nonsense. Britain had a dry spell in talent after Osagie. One of the few talents Langford got hurt, there is really not so much to it. It is talent, smart training and staying healthy - not all made-up excuses about mentality. My whole point is you seem to draw huge gigantic mental barriers as an excuse for the ebbs and flows of a country’s success in an event.
The athletes themselves have spoken precisely to this point. Jakob's brothers aspired to being the best in Europe and won titles in Europe (Filip also got a world medal), while Jakob said that he wanted to be the best in the world and became that. How do I know? It was on their reality tv show all this time and Jakob has spoken over and over in interviews and indicated it on the track that he believes he is the best. What about Brits? Josh Kerr went back to this point repeatedly in an interview at World's. It was about believing he could do it. Moreover, there is a general trend throughout athletics to get sports psychologists. Kerr does it and what is that for? If it's all talent and training, then why do they worry about this "made-up mentality"? It's because mentality is extremely important at every stage. You don't enter into the sport seriously if you think there's no hope. You don't do all the workouts if you don't think it matters. You don't go after the lead at the key moment of the race when you lack confidence. Kerr said he already missed one chance to do it in the 1500m because he wasn't confident enough but he went for it the second time and won. And even the regular runners among us know that mentality is extremely significant. Go for a run by yourself. Now compare when you run with others. Everyone knows that it is far easier to go at a quicker pace with others. Races are faster than solo time trials as well. Why? Because you know that you are competing against other people. The body isn't any different. Consciousness and unconscious effects are there all the time. This goes beyond sports to all kinds of areas. Kids score better when they think it's a matter of work, not how smart you are, for instance. So, you ought to reconsider your assumption that mind is meaningless in athletics.
The strength of an event in perception is typically linked to the top two or three runners in it. They drive everyone else to faster times as well. That was certainly the case for Rudisha. That London 2012 race was the best of all time because he gave them perfect pacing for the whole race. When the best runner isn't interested in fast times, like Mo Farah at 5 and 10 in the 2010s, the event stagnates in time. The 800m lost Brazier and Amos went down to a doping bust, plus Korir isn't interested in fast times and struggled this year, so the event is down with those top three guys out. The 400m is stagnating because Kerley and Norman dropped down to the 100m and Wayde has never been able to get back to his old form. The 1500m is flourishing with Ingebrigtsen at the top and multiple close competitors in Kerr, Wightman, Nuguse, and Hoare, among others.
People always talk about Rudisha's WR performance in London, but 2016 in Rio was a masterclass too. I'd say remove the WR from London and Rio beats it for sheer excitement.
📲 Subscribe to @olympics: http://oly.ch/Subscribe Let's take a look back at the men's 800m final from the Summer Olympic Games 2016 in Rio de Janeiro! Davi...
1:44 mid for a win??? WTF. These guys are a joke. Part time runner Pattison even bronzed here.
Was there any other time the 800 was this bad?
That was actually an incredible race; it was equal to a 1:42x or very low 1:43. Don't focus on times in championship racing, 52/51 is difficult to do. Trying to run fast times in global championships is risky; you run the race that's required to win. This sometimes means going out very fast or slow. The way Arop ran that race, I would not be surprised to see him run much faster in the coming weeks. A race that goes out very fast or very slow benefits the 400/800 types; I knew Bryce was in trouble at the 400m mark especially considering her was not near the front.