He has to change his tactics. The world has caught on and he can't front run his way to gold every year with fields of this quality. Let someone else take it for the first K and then push from 600 out, El G style.
He has to change his tactics. The world has caught on and he can't front run his way to gold every year with fields of this quality. Let someone else take it for the first K and then push from 600 out, El G style.
Jakob won in Tokyo because it was a fast race, but Cheruiyot did the majority of the leading. Jakob made sure it got going from 200 to ~450 in, then Cheruiyot took over and led until like 120 to go.
The last three global championships have consisted of Jakob having to lead a lot more of the race, including at least the portion of the race that precedes the drive for home.
Leading vs following makes a big difference. Everyone has figured out that if they don't take the lead, Jakob will, so why would they?
Put them all in a race where none of the main competitors have to lead until 500 to go, and my money is on Jakob, whether the pace is blazing or more moderate. But that's not how championship finals work.
he simply ran too fast. 54.8 is too fast of a split. 1 second faster than when he ran his PR of 3m26.
he is a 3m26 runner that went out for a 3m25 and ended up with a 3m28, it is simple actually. Had he started 55.8 rather than 54.8 he would have probably won with a 3.26 high, 3.27 low
He should just move up to 5k and 10k and ditch the 1500m.
There are a lot of athletes capable of out-kicking him off any sort of pace, and he doesn't have the luxury of drafting behind pace-makers in championships.
Yes that's correct. Jakob is really washed up now, loses to KERR yet again and I told you KERR would beat Jakob except I didn't foresee those American cheats benefiting so much from the drugs to actually beat KERR and Jakob at the same time??????????
Yes that's correct. Jakob is really washed up now, loses to KERR yet again and I told you KERR would beat Jakob except I didn't foresee those American cheats benefiting so much from the drugs to actually beat KERR and Jakob at the same time??????????
He has to change his tactics. The world has caught on and he can't front run his way to gold every year with fields of this quality. Let someone else take it for the first K and then push from 600 out, El G style.
He probably figured the best way to beat Kerr was to run close to the WR. Doing so from the front, in an Olympic final, is very difficult. If he waited until 600m out, he still would have lost, and Hocker and Kerr would have had an even better kicks.
Jakob thinks of himself as a Homeric hero. Winning a gold isn't enough, he had to do it while being in the front from the gun to the finish line. It's delusional and insane, but also admirable. Sadly this isn't a myth, so that's how it goes.
The "kicking" comments are dumb. I'm not sure if many of you ran 1500s competitively?
"Kicking" in a fast race is purely a function of fitness and knowing how much you have left to time your drive for home.
Top and speed and ability to accelerate does matter in a slower race.
The bottom line from today is that it's really hard to lead gun to tape in a 1500m. You usually won't win unless you are much better than the field (probably two seconds +). Jakob is probably the fittest of all the guys in the field, but not by that much.
His best bet is probably to ramp it up from 700m out and fend off any challenges on the final lap. He might still lose, but it's a better chance than trying to go out hard like he did.
Did he go out too fast though? He only went out about .3 seconds off his PR pace. I think he just didn't have it today or burnt himself out by front running.
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