No excuse necessary. He ran a bad @ss race and entertained me to no end. Way more exciting than a sit and kick. That was electric. Could he go wire to wire? It turns out no, but I'm not mad at him for trying. It would have eclipsed even David Rudisha if he could have. I'm glad he went for it. Nothing to be ashamed of. I hope he breaks the world record later this year. The fact that Kerr nearly was third place vindicates him. He is still awesome, and now both of them have to recognize Nuguse and Hocker as equal competitors. Now the 1500m is the most competitive most interesting event in track. That wouldn't be the case had Jakob not gone balls out in that race. He really didn't die that bad for leading the race at world record pace. Kerr is the one who comes away looking worse imo, because he drafted the whole way, had perfect position, and still couldn't win it.
Honestly, the guy only has one way of running and potentially winning championship races at 1500m, and that was to be his own pace-maker and try to burn them all off.
All he did was setup the other 3 for PBs and NRs.
As soon as they were on his shoulder with 200 to go I knew it was over for him.
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He didn't make any excuses in the BBC interview but that result just proves that everything Kerr said about him was accurate.
He is surrounded by yes men. He is arrogant. He doesn't win a lot of unpaced races.
Trying to front-run an Olympic final from the gun is just pure stupidity and pure arrogance. That was never going to work. Everyone on here said he should wind it up from 1000-800 and that was the obvious tactic. We could see it. Why couldn't he?
It doesn't matter what he says—he clearly just paced a stacked field for 1400 meters. He's good, but just not quite good enough to do that and win. He can solo a 2:28 low though.
He solo pulls the podium to 3.27, elevates the sport to unseen levels, creates drama, media, and anticipation. He is a godsend to our sport and will win the 5000. Put repect to his name.
Watching the interview with NRK: He's not making any excuses. At all.
I have been talking negatively about Jakob's smugness for 4 years. That interview, however, was a class act, mature, measured, reflected. Not a single excuse. Praised his competitors without fake gushing.
You bullies. There have been rumors for days here in Norway that he has stage 4 leg cancer and he would destroy that little man if he was healthy. Jakob will always be the greatest 1500m runner no matter how many times he loses. Cole was just the next next next guy. Don't be sad they're not better than they are Jakob.
Yep, he sure was. Then he got his doors blown off.
It really was a tactically dumb race. He served up the whole podium for his fastest competitors and expected them not to pass him.
Agreed.
We had a thread about "when does he have to start the squeeze" and there was some agreement that he could let it be a slower pace from the gun as long as he went to the front and started cranking it up with 700 to 800 to go. I was in the camp that thought that was his best chance (a sit and kick would never be the strategy).
But there's a big difference between a big pace shift and a long squeeze and trying to lead for 1500 meters.
He made it an honest race though. Gotta give him that.