I don’t know why they keep making this mistake. You would have thought her coach would have gone through this. Of course a 400m runner is going to sprint to the front then slow it down - then kick for the last 200m at a blistering pace.
I think Jemma was lulled in to a false sense of security by how easily she won her heats and the semi. But that’s also a tactic - let her be overly confident. She was caught sleeping unfortunately. And I did really want gold for her. If she’d run her best time and lost then fair play, nothing she could have done. But to have run 1.58s all the way though then 2.02 in the final! Big tactical errors.
I do wonder if she should switch back to the 1500m - and she’s very strong at the mile.
I’d like to take your point a step further. I think Hobbs showed excellent tactical maturity. Found himself in the best position after the break. You could tell he was situationally aware enough to where he didn’t want to rabbit the thing. Less mature tactics would have succumb to the moment and kept leading only to get swallowed up by the pack in the final lap. Well played Hobbs 👏🏼
He was exceptionally well spoken in the post race with NBC. It's like he has suddenly emerged from a rite of passage
He's changing and maturing. He was literally a kid and he's growing and maturing into a young man.
Tactically, I agree he did seem to be aware of what was going on around him and reacting well.