World indoors afterthoughts

The vroom vroom motorcycle dude

More countries should send their best athlete like Afghanistan did. We could have a whole heat of countries without much t&f so the world could really see just how good the top athletes are. Eventually it would lead to more competition world wide as athletes would strive to make national teams. Lesotho, Suriname, Sri Lanka, Singapore, etc. have to have someone who could run in the 8s or 9s surely.

- Mondo looks rusty but he's just too good
- Warholm fades hard in the last 75m again
- Tsegay will be back with a vengeance
- Nuguse may lack the killer instinct
- Kerr looks better than ever
- Kenyans and Ethiopians basically ditched indoors, but unlike many of the US/Euro stars they are guaranteed to feature in the first 4 DL meets (2x China, Qatar, Morocco) so until then it's hard to say where they're at
- Nordaas should wait until the adrenaline cools down before talking to the media
- Kessler and Hocker took their shots and used this rare opportunity to earn global medals. It won't happen again this year, or at the 2025 world's, or at the 2026 indoor's

400 - very different race compared to the outside version
800 - a little different
1500 - with 14 runners, quite different

This post.

Yes, yes, and yes with an *

In Worlds and Olympics I agree with the 1500 assessment. In DL meets I think they put too many in races and they get crowded, too.

Running series turned out to be combat championships.

As per Josh Kerr's complaint about prize money. He compared it to the guy playing darts.

OK, it would be nice if they could give more but:

There are about 15 events times 2 (men and women).

If they gave prize money to 1 person that would be 1.2 million dollars. That's not a bad payday.

Outdoors would be even more- there are more events and a bigger 1st prize.

Welteji ran the strangest race. That's my main takeaway. Last year and this year she only had one completed race worse than second, and that was 3rd last in an outdoor 1500 year while running 3:55 flat.

Then somehow she cruises through her heat in Glasgow yet finishes 5th in a slow final, well beaten by runners ranked considerably lower.

My only conclusion is that Welteji sensed she would lose another head to head stretch run against Hailu, her training partner, and this time in high profile fashion. Rather than carry that stain into the next few months, preferable to stay out of the fight and see what happens outdoors, where Welteji had a great 2023.

The whole world took this meeting more seriously than previous indoor Worlds. I hope it continues to rise in stature in the coming editions

There might be a new player in the womens 800 in Tsige Duguma, a newcomer to the event who closed the final 100 sub 13.7. Still need to see what she can do in an honest race but clearly can change gears easily. Reekie’s weaknesses got exposed here, but in a faster race might still have a shot at an outdoor medal (looks at ease running 1:58 but that 34 lap showed gear change issues).