I had a great interview with the 2023 World Champ after his super impressive 1:43.38 negative split win today at Grand Slam Track Philly. At the end, he says he's gaining confidence in the 1500m.
Arop is a beast but let’s be real on Kessler at 800. In his PB he lost by .87 to Hoppel. So he’s about 1.5s slower than Arop probably? No shame in that, but Arop will/should smoke him pretty consistently. The way he easily handled Hoey from fending off surges and pulling away though was truly impressive. Excited to see him vs some real competition, maybe Paris?
Arop is a beast but let’s be real on Kessler at 800. In his PB he lost by .87 to Hoppel. So he’s about 1.5s slower than Arop probably? No shame in that, but Arop will/should smoke him pretty consistently. The way he easily handled Hoey from fending off surges and pulling away though was truly impressive. Excited to see him vs some real competition, maybe Paris?
Arop is a beast but let’s be real on Kessler at 800. In his PB he lost by .87 to Hoppel. So he’s about 1.5s slower than Arop probably? No shame in that, but Arop will/should smoke him pretty consistently. The way he easily handled Hoey from fending off surges and pulling away though was truly impressive. Excited to see him vs some real competition, maybe Paris?
there are the 141 low guys
and in this race 143 144 guys
kessler is opening really, 145 isn't indicitave of much other than he's in good shape
Hoey i have at 142 low.
so the race played out to form
the boards are for ever fixated on the opener as the be all and end all for the season.
openers are more of a rehearsal than a super serious race.
Rojo is a big fan of Arop. I guess that's why any threads noting his progression get deleted.
What about his progression?
I’m guessing that some posters view the progression as “evidence” of doping. This kind of speculation is a rite of passage for gold medal contenders around here.
For reference:
2018 - 1:45.25
2019 - 1:44.25
2020 - 1:44.14
2021 - 1:43.26
2022 - 1:43.38
2023 - 1:42.85
2024 - 1:41.20
A couple of fun side notes - 1) the 2018 time came in a loaded NCAA Final with Isaiah Harris winning and then Arop, Saruni, Hoppel, Devin Dixon, and Jonah Koech rounding out the top six. 2) Of the seven seasonal best times listed, only one came in a winning performance (2019).
Sounds like my high school cross country coach. "The only thing on your minds in a race should be a seven letter word ... DOMINATE!"
What did he say when one of you pointed out that "dominate" has 8 letters?
Malmo tells this story to make a point. From another thread:
Quote: "Coach Budd used to tell us "when you're in a race the only thing on your mind should be a seven letter word - DOMINATE. It took us three years to figure out DOMINATE had eight letters. But we did dominate."
Both his high school and college teams (Duval, MD, and Penn State) were top 10 in the country.
" Just a week before the Olympics, Arop decided to try something new—something that he’d never tried before but that, according to an anonymous Olympic runner quoted in the Telegraph, at least 80 percent of elite runners are now using: sodium bicarbonate, better known as baking soda. “I figured if everybody else is using it…” Arop said in his post-race interview. “And it’s been working wonders.”"
kessler is opening really, 145 isn't indicitave of much other than he's in good shape
Hoey i have at 142 low.
so the race played out to form
the boards are for ever fixated on the opener as the be all and end all for the season.
openers are more of a rehearsal than a super serious race.
Agreed. Also I’d mainly judge guys in their primary event. What place will Kessler be in the 1500? Hocker who appears to be training through has gone 3rd/3rd which is fine. Nuguse at 2nd/2nd better, Kerr one dud one win. Nothing to worry about from the big 3 yet, but let’s see today. I bet Hocker is a different athlete in LA but he’s the only one of the 3 with 5,000m aspirations.
I’m guessing that some posters view the progression as “evidence” of doping. This kind of speculation is a rite of passage for gold medal contenders around here.
For reference:
2018 - 1:45.25
2019 - 1:44.25
2020 - 1:44.14
2021 - 1:43.26
2022 - 1:43.38
2023 - 1:42.85
2024 - 1:41.20
A couple of fun side notes - 1) the 2018 time came in a loaded NCAA Final with Isaiah Harris winning and then Arop, Saruni, Hoppel, Devin Dixon, and Jonah Koech rounding out the top six. 2) Of the seven seasonal best times listed, only one came in a winning performance (2019).
I don't know if he's doping - I hope not - but talk of sub 1:40 is certainly insane, and his progression does need explaining a little bit. I mean, presumably he was already wearing super shoes in 2021 or perhaps 2020. The thing is it is odd that NOBODY here mentions Arop in doping discussions, even to the extent of the mods deleting posts and threads that do bring up his progression.
So age 19- 21 he went from 1:45.25 to 1:44.14
Age 22 to 24 he went from 1:43.26 to 1:42.85
Age 24 to 25 he went from 1:42.85 to 1:41.20 and now people say he can run under 1:40 at age 26 or 27?
If it does happen, then he is the most obvious doper of all time, and if he isn't, it's because he is Canadian and has a disarming grin.
Another thing is he is absolutely huge. If he wasn't a runner, I'm sure he could switch to at least a light-heavyweight boxer. Yet he is 'gaining confidence in the 1500m'.
At the start of the EPO era, all of a sudden you had 1500m men able to run world beating 5000m times, when just a decade before the likes of even Walker and Ovett had struggled to a greater or lesser extent.
Now all of a sudden 800m guys, even stocky or well-built ones, are able to run world class 1500m times. Perhaps something similar is happening?
I don't know if he's doping - I hope not - but talk of sub 1:40 is certainly insane, and his progression does need explaining a little bit. I mean, presumably he was already wearing super shoes in 2021 or perhaps 2020. The thing is it is odd that NOBODY here mentions Arop in doping discussions, even to the extent of the mods deleting posts and threads that do bring up his progression.
So age 19- 21 he went from 1:45.25 to 1:44.14
Age 22 to 24 he went from 1:43.26 to 1:42.85
Age 24 to 25 he went from 1:42.85 to 1:41.20 and now people say he can run under 1:40 at age 26 or 27?
If it does happen, then he is the most obvious doper of all time, and if he isn't, it's because he is Canadian and has a disarming grin.
Another thing is he is absolutely huge. If he wasn't a runner, I'm sure he could switch to at least a light-heavyweight boxer. Yet he is 'gaining confidence in the 1500m'.
At the start of the EPO era, all of a sudden you had 1500m men able to run world beating 5000m times, when just a decade before the likes of even Walker and Ovett had struggled to a greater or lesser extent.
Now all of a sudden 800m guys, even stocky or well-built ones, are able to run world class 1500m times. Perhaps something similar is happening?
There’s bicarb and did Josh Kerr not stagnate from age 23-25 before dropping 1.59s and now discussing setting records 1.79s faster?
On your size thing, we know you’ve seen Joaquin Cruz run.
This post was edited 1 minute after it was posted.
Arop is a beast but let’s be real on Kessler at 800. In his PB he lost by .87 to Hoppel. So he’s about 1.5s slower than Arop probably? No shame in that, but Arop will/should smoke him pretty consistently. The way he easily handled Hoey from fending off surges and pulling away though was truly impressive. Excited to see him vs some real competition, maybe Paris?
Wanyonyi ran at the GST Kingston meet. I think the 800m Olympic champion counts as “real competition.” 😉
Haingura finished only .06 behind Arop at the GST Miami meet, so that counts as real competition too.
I also think Hoey at his best can be considered real competition (even if he hasn’t yet proven it outdoors), but he wasn’t at his best yesterday. In his post-race interview, he said a recent stomach virus threw him off his preparation.
This post was edited 5 minutes after it was posted.
Wanyonyi ran at the GST Kingston meet. I think the 800m Olympic champion counts as “real competition.” 😉
Haingura finished only .06 behind Arop at the GST Miami meet, so that counts as real competition too.
I also think Hoey at his best can be considered real competition (even if he hasn’t yet proven it outdoors), but he wasn’t at his best yesterday. In his post-race interview, he said a recent stomach virus threw him off his preparation.
Yes, fair. Wanyonyi I think wasn’t 800-sharp yet but obviously Arop ran smart to block his attempted passes. Haingura is good but I think that race was maybe more about the wind and Arop going for broke in the 1500 while Haingura ran a more conservative race. Agree on Hoey but he’s in the second tier for me with Burgin, Crestan, et al. The top group at their will be harder for Arop to dominates the races from gun to tape like he has mostly.
