Rough morning for them all. Negus and Mario ran awful tactically, and to see Ollie get spit out the back off 2:01 is pitiful. Very rusty at a bad time.
Although Yared advanced he did not look like a medal threat. Garcia and Hoare looked awful.
I wouldn’t worry too much about Yared. But they were saying on Coffee Club they’d ripped a workout, and if they did that surely didn’t look like it helped them in terms of sharpness.
This has been a rough year. Coming off of a disappointing trials from Hurta-Klecker and Andrews along with Klecker and Monson both being injured during an Olympic year. Hopefully Klecker will run well at NYC Marathon.
Yared looked like he didn’t get enough sleep and was shook. I think it was nerves for him and he’ll have a better semi
The other two i’m VERY worried about. How did Mario get 4th in 2022? He’s probably not a top 20 guy now
Mario’s looked flat all year. There was some carnage in 2022 as Katir elbowed Tim and killed his finish, Kipsang ran a crazy race, but Mario still ran a good 4th. Last year he was probably even better, though so was the field. It’s kinda unclear what’s going on this year.
Although Yared advanced he did not look like a medal threat. Garcia and Hoare looked awful.
I wouldn’t worry too much about Yared. But they were saying on Coffee Club they’d ripped a workout, and if they did that surely didn’t look like it helped them in terms of sharpness.
Dathan does not know how to peak his athletes well. He has them do these ridiculous workouts leading up to championships and it often just cools them. Ollie has been off at every champs except for Commonwealth. I’d argue that he ran well at Commonwealth because he bobbed at worlds that year. He actually had some time to recover.
Starting to think Ritz might just be another Jerry in terms of his coaching style. I remember during the Hobbs Kessler interview on Coffee Club, Hobbs mentioned that he does his easy runs at 7:00-7:30 pace, and one of the guys mentioned he can’t remember the last time they ran a mile close to that slow. Look how well Hobbs is running right now and look how well the OAC guys are running (or not running).
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Starting to think Ritz might just be another Jerry in terms of his coaching style. I remember during the Hobbs Kessler interview on Coffee Club, Hobbs mentioned that he does his easy runs at 7:00-7:30 pace, and one of the guys mentioned he can’t remember the last time they ran a mile close to that slow. Look how well Hobbs is running right now and look how well the OAC guys are running (or not running).
Starting to think Ritz might just be another Jerry in terms of his coaching style. I remember during the Hobbs Kessler interview on Coffee Club, Hobbs mentioned that he does his easy runs at 7:00-7:30 pace, and one of the guys mentioned he can’t remember the last time they ran a mile close to that slow. Look how well Hobbs is running right now and look how well the OAC guys are running (or not running).
Maybe the 7:30 part. But from Strava we can see, Morgan and Beamish's easy runs are typically 6:45-7:05 pace. It doesn't seem like a focus of the team to run fast on easy runs, and they typically note that Klecker does do that and they often don't try to keep up. They expressed surprise at Blanks running his easy runs so fast (6 min pace).
I think it is fair to question the Ritz "big workouts" before global champs though. Certainly this is a tough 2 times in a row for Olli (2022 and 2024). Yared last year was fine until the final though.
Rough morning for them all. Negus and Mario ran awful tactically, and to see Ollie get spit out the back off 2:01 is pitiful. Very rusty at a bad time.
other than the cwg, hoare is not a championship racer. doesn't seem to have the mental capacity. weird/fragile guy. something is off with romo. nuguse just flat as well.
I'm predicting a victim-minded excuse/response from Hoare. The 1500 always has some jostling and he did look like he got caught up a few times but that is racing. Outside of that he looked really flat and didn't have any finishing gears. Can't wait to hear him blame racing for his poor race.
I'm predicting a victim-minded excuse/response from Hoare. The 1500 always has some jostling and he did look like he got caught up a few times but that is racing. Outside of that he looked really flat and didn't have any finishing gears. Can't wait to hear him blame racing for his poor race.
Like would he get on Komen you're thinking? There was some hand-fighting there, but nothing looked close to a foul.
LRC interview with Hoare has no excuses made. I don't count him noting he was in the best heat as an excuse since it's accurate:
Hoare noted that his heat was difficult (it was definitely the strongest of the three) and said he got bumped around on the last lap. But part of that bumping came as a result of Hoare slowing down. “I wasn’t able to close that last 300, 200, just felt pretty sleepy,” Hoare said. “When you have that kind of field for a first round, it was pretty brutal.”
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I wonder if the doping situation in Spain is effecting Garcia? Maybe he used to get away with taking something that he had to stop right around when their national anti-doping agency was revealed to be allowed athletes to dodge tests.
OAC is having a rough year all round. Beamish has been a high point, but he's injured now. The interviews you hear from some of the group and externals who have trained with them (like Kessler and Ben Flanagan) suggest that they're pushing very hard on both volume and intensity. I wonder if Ritz is reviewing his programme. He's still a young coach and learning as he goes. The balance certainly seems to be off right now as his athletes are usually in poor shape for the major champs.
OAC is having a rough year all round. Beamish has been a high point, but he's injured now. The interviews you hear from some of the group and externals who have trained with them (like Kessler and Ben Flanagan) suggest that they're pushing very hard on both volume and intensity. I wonder if Ritz is reviewing his programme. He's still a young coach and learning as he goes. The balance certainly seems to be off right now as his athletes are usually in poor shape for the major champs.
Starting to think Ritz might just be another Jerry in terms of his coaching style. I remember during the Hobbs Kessler interview on Coffee Club, Hobbs mentioned that he does his easy runs at 7:00-7:30 pace, and one of the guys mentioned he can’t remember the last time they ran a mile close to that slow. Look how well Hobbs is running right now and look how well the OAC guys are running (or not running).
I mean it's blatantly clear that Dathan is a 5000m coach whose runners just so happen to have the wheels to run the 1500m - which is what when those little lights are zipping around the track and nice even 56's, his guys are fine. In these races I think the reality is he really hasn't provided them/fostered the tools to be truly comfortable navigating rounds and athletes their talent suggests they should do with ease. Now in the final this won't matter because it's going to be 1.51/2.47 at 1200m, but with time qualification being removed in these heats/semis etc, there is no real incentive for early rounds to be fast and that's why we saw 2/3 races out in well over 2min - very old school. You will see the same in RC round and at least one of the semis will be a dawdle. These guys will struggle if they luck-out with the wrong race.
Dathan coaches the way he trained as an athlete. I think you can be a good coach that way (especially if you were a good athlete which he was) - I don't think you will ever be a great coach doing that and I don't think he is - despite the massive amount of hype which honestly is more a function of a new, hot brand in the game with a ton of $$$ to spend on product development and infrastructure which has created culture through momentum vs excellence at a coaching level.
This post was edited 1 minute after it was posted.
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