Did Assefa really give her all at London?

It was windy, and I think she perhaps trusted her finish too much. A kick at the end of the marathon is different than one at the end of a track race. Jepchirchir is a fantastic kicker when she's on. I don't think she was 100% for London last year.

Running without a male pacemaker is hard, conditions were adequate and London is not Berlin. the time is about that difference, and a race is a race in the end.

That's the end of the normal response.

Tinfoil hat response continues: she is now in the highest testing pool, so while she is unquestionably an all time great athlete, it's not as laughably easy in this pool. take from that what you will, but just remember how laughably easy it was for the timetrialers from 2020 to early 2021, and how hard it has been for any of them to match themselves since then.

is it true the Berlin record is still not ratificated? normal it takes that long?

She looked so relaxed the whole way. I was just waiting for her to go with about 1k to go. And she never did.

Mind you she looked like she was barely out of breath when she finished Berlin so that may just be her style!

I guess inexperience? She may have assumed she could sprint right at the end.

good yr asking, I did the same but only registered account get responses on this forum

Just remembered Sifan said last year something concerning the London course what would explain why Assefa got second. Here’s my go;

Sifan said she did not realize the finish line would be around the corner, she thought it would take a couple km more, but than the women around her started a slight acceleration before the last corner(!) so she started to accelerate as well, finding out that around that corner the finish line revealed to her very surprise and hit her specific Sifan gear and won.

As we’ve seen Assefa was lingering the whole race, waiting for to accelerate, probably not realizing that after that specific last corner, the finish line would be. Probably all except Peres did not know the course well enough, only Peres crossed Assefa’s path extremely sneaky on that corner and positioned herself just in time and directly started to accelerate, Assefa realized too late what happened.

Sifan was way more alert last year, Assefa was not well prepared and not alert, Peres KNEW this situation from last year and took advantage from newby Assefa. It must’ve been a plan learned from Sifan last year, otherwise Peres would’ve never won.

When in peak form, Peres has a pretty stellar kick. Last years London she was fresh off of an injury. I think chalking up Assefa’s lack of a kick to not realizing the finish line was so close seems flimsy. Yes Peres’ signature seems to be taking sharp corners and overtaking her competitor (her Boston win comes to mind against Yeshaneh), but even if Assefa thought she had more real estate she never should have let Peres get far enough away to where she couldn’t cover the move no matter where the finish line was. Peres also out kicked Kosgei in Sapporo when Kosgei was the World record holder. Assefa did very well, it just shows Peres is formidable when in peak form and healthy.

I imagine she did. It was a race and she lost, that's all. 2:11 doesn't ensure future success.

Yes good point. She looked very zoned out most of the way round. Then there was the tussle on the last corner that may have just thrown her and left her with not enough time to come back.

And, saw that Peres did not take the corner sharp in 2023, that’ve cost her a lot, Sifan snuck trough the open corner, Peres learned from that mistake! And now Assefa has to learn. Will be fun who will run next year and which newbies will make the same mistake: Kipyegon? That corner will be trouble coming years!

She probably needed something more.

Excuses after excuses. She lost, period!!! What other lame excuses will you have when she loses again probably to Obiri???

All the hype was about Assefa, ooh Assefa blah blah! We shall see a replica of this at Paris Olympics. If a marathoner hasn't raced hilly marathons, then they have a lot to worry about Paris course. Anyway, they have time to prepare so as to avoid some ignorant folks talking of defeat due to corners blah blah....

I think this more of a discussion than looking for excuses. She really seemed very comfortable and relaxed all the way through. So many of us are wondering why she didn’t go at the end. Of course she was beaten fair and square. She had no response. And we are speculating why that would be. Especially as she has such range being and 800m sub 2 min runner.

Now the answer may well be (and probably is) the better runner won on the day. I do think her marathon inexperience went against her.

What inexperience are you talking about? Take a case of someone like Obiri who's only run 4 marathons and compare to Tigist who's equally run the same. Would you still say that they're inexperienced?

What other excuse would you have for her when she again loses Paris Olympics women's marathon????

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