Hocker finished 9th in 3:32 but….

man I'm surprised the field was able to hold off his legendary kick!! haven't ever seen that before!!

He’s saving his brutal kick for near retired Americans and college kids at the next huge meet on American soil. bet he burns them all on his was to a smokin 3:35

And how about that 18 year old?

Laros knows where to be

So he is not fit & healthy but made the World Champs final and ran a PR this year?

Is that what your saying?

He came through 1:52 high. That’s the fastest he’s came through 800 in any 1500m race I believe. Last 400 was 57.0 so he died but still a good effort. Also I watched the Grant Fisher interview and according to him, they give out bye’s to one American outside of those who are in through points(Nuguse). So we might see him in the DL final in Eugene.

Sorry to be the Negative Nancy, but what's with the cope about "when he's fully fit/healthy next year?" He's already fully fit and healthy this year. This is Cole Hocker's peak.

you say this like 3:35 isn't faster than 99% of people on this site could run...

Please show me the 1% that could run 3.35!!! maybe Rojo running away from Noah Lyles in Paris but apart from that?

... 99.999%, more like. But point made. :D

Eh, you’re both a bit full of it, especially Kokinho. Today’s race wasn’t especially encouraging for Hocker, but yeah, kudos to him for getting out aggressively, and he did race 3 rounds at Worlds last week so you’ve got to cut all these guys some slack. It is kind of ridiculous at this juncture to be hyping up Hocker’s Olympic medal chances, even if it’s not out of the realm of possibility.

He was fit and healthy this summer, but that’s no reason to declare “This is Cole Hocker’s peak”. He’s 22 years old and he just PRed a week ago, so who’s to say he won’t continue to improve in the coming years—never mind the fact that he was injured last year and early this year, so it’s reasonable to think he could reach a higher level if he’s able to string together a couple years of uninterrupted training.

Also I will never be okay with people using “cope” as a noun.

The fact that he got through the rounds to place in a world final tells me the fitness is probably there for the most part, but if he fast-tracked himself into shape this year it actually doesn’t seem surprising that he’d come out of those rounds with a slight hangover compared to guys with long consistent stretches behind them.

engels would have beat him for sure.

This is basically him getting back to where he was two years ago. Unfortunately, he's stayed in one place while the rest of the world has moved forward, but here's hoping he ends the season healthy and has a completely healthy next season.

I think we must have watched different races. He ran mid-pack and had nothing left for the final lap, that's not "sticking his nose in the front." He runs the same race every time, never looks for the shoulder of the top guys, never pushes up to be in position with 400 to go. Usually finishes outside the top 8. There's no way he's less talented than George Mills but Mills got involved and finished 4th, Hocker faded to 9th.

He was uncompetitive in a race that was missing some of the best milers.

Just like the Budapest final, except worse:

- worse ranking

- worse time

- worse "tactic", if any

He has a lot of work to do to establish some sort of presence at the world level.

Really? I agree with the first post. He was slightly in front of Nuguse much of the race, and did not settle for just tucking himself on the rail way back like he did in Tokyo for example. I think Nuguse started to pass him with about 450 to go. Hocker did pay for the pace in last 200 and went from 6th to 9th, and from just behind Nuguse to 2 seconds back.

Lol everyone is always making excuses for him. We're supposed to applaud him for "getting out of his comfort zone"? What is he, 8 years old?

His 3rd best time of his career.

But not all the way back as the big kick is not there

Another way to look at it is that he made his previous PR from 2001 into his approximate routine level of performance this season while also improving his PR. I expect to see him continue to improve next year.