Nordas has horrendous tactics

New here?

Yeah, we know.

I agree. Nordas is the polar opposite of Jakob who never loses because of poor race tactics, but only because he is on occasions marginally less fit than optimal. Strange considering they have (had until recently) the same coach....

The thing is Nordas is very new to high level 1500m racing. 2 years ago he was a 13:15/28:04 guy racing 5k/10k. Now don’t get me wrong those are very good times. But a guy like that is often just going to have to worry about hanging on in international races or European championships.

When he got fitter and moved down to his natural event, the 1500m, he realized he was one of the very best guys in the world. However, he doesn’t have the experience of somewhat like Kerr or Wightman or Jakob who’s used to high level 1500m racing.

Crazy as it sounds Narve could’ve won worlds in the 1500m last year. He was less than half a second behind Jakob and Josh and closed his last lap a full second faster than they did. With better positioning he could’ve won the race or at least gotten silver. Apparently he’s aerobically and threshold wise fitter than ever rn, so it’ll be interesting to see what he can do at the Olympics if he gets his tactics right.

As a matter of fact he was only 4hundreds of a second behind Jakob in the Worlds! (0.3 sec behind Kerr)..!

Yes, Nordås got some tactically challenges -he himself says he really struggles with the pace on the first lap of a 1500m (even in quite slow races -strange…). And in hot weather he is almost useless in the 5000m…

Exciting to see where his very good training year leaves him now…

Nordas has a different base cadence and doesn't benefit from mixing with the pack without increased risk of getting tangled up and possibly falling. Runners that have this kind of "problem/ability" often cruise at the back where they can save energy by doing their natural stride rather than adjust to the flow of the pack.

Morgan Uceny had a similar "problem/ability" but ran within the pack anyway and was tripped and fell in two consecutive global championship finals.

Several times 800 meters global champ Billy Konchella comes to mind - look at how he benefitted from running his own race in this heat 1993:

And let's not forget Potato Tim that in his (first?) prime a few years back did the exact opposite - he took his long stride and somewhat lower cadence right to the front of the pack and let the others run themselves tired before they even got close enough to draft and having to adjust to his.

Juantorena was the master of this tactic. Find space and run his own race. Ovett said after he raced him for the first time in the heats of the 76 OG that Juantorena could not chop his huge stride to adjust to pack position without ruining his race. So he needed to run in the clear, either at the back, or the front, or around the outside, never in mid-pack. Juantorena raced excellently despite his lack of 800m experience and ensured he was not chopped, allowing him room to deploy his devastating power when it mattered.

Nordas is not Juantorena in terms of stride, but the same principle applies....he doesn't have a rapid change of pace but excellent sustained speed.

Yes, that’s why Hocker looks like he has great tactics. He has such a short stride. He positions himself somewhere on the rail (mid pack) at the start. Does not really matter where, but he needs to do it in the first 100m. 5th or 6th is ideal. Then every time people move out to pass, he fills the void and moves up (from the rail). In the last 300m, things always open up. As soon as he sees an opening (from his box), he quickly moves to the outside (within 2 or 3 strides) and passes the guys that naturally start going backwards in the front (but blocking people on the rail). He can do that because of his stride frequency.

Everybody in a world class field can keep the pace for the first 1100m, so you don’t have to worry about the guy in front of you slowing down until after 1100m. You don’t need to “panic” between 1100m and 1200m. The guy in front of you will not go down to a walk.

Again and again, that is always the best tactic. Simply follow it.

You’re welcome Nordas.

nordas appears to be super fit, on a new level.

his first race did not go so well, and running without a shoe obscures the fitness level.

the recent DL is evidence of the new level fitness level.

i can see 328 1500 our of this guy or even 327.

i see jacob this year 327 and better with things going very well.

throw away the idea that jacob won't try for a WR this year, but that would probably be after the OG, if that works out proper.

the thing about jacob, he is one of one, and with the next level fitness he has, hard races are easier than workouts, but races bring extreme sharpening, so races are kind of a speed workout.

therefore, the standard analysis on a guy like that does not work,

you need to adjust the algorithm for jacob. and that was the same for a bekele, komen, though komen was EPO and the race schedule was not designed by a rocket scientist, as in dumb.