Who’s making excuses? He ran a passive race and didn’t give himself a gold medal chance. He is too good to run a sandbagging race. But this is the indoor 3k and what he does in the outdoor 1500 is all we’ll end up caring about. 0/1 so far, but many chances for redemption to come.
Being fair to Nuguse, he rode on Kerr for the win in Zurich last year. He probably gambled on doing it again. It was different here in that Kerr was leading, but I'm sure Nuguse was backing his kick. But what can you do when Kerr runs 25.19 for his last 200? Kerr is just better now than he was last year
I've said this before but he's too happy with 2nd place. Ritz needs to sit him down and explain the mindset of winners. Not saying he could have beaten Kerr today but he has the same talent as Jakob and Kerr.
On the rewatch I noticed this was almost more of the Grant Fisher than Beamish. He wasn’t that far back but prioritized the rail and not running wide over going wide on the turn and not ceding so much ground. Fortunately for him his kick meant it only cost him fractions not a position/two.