Kejelcha is what people think Pre is

He's great, but he doesn't win as often.

With so many good runners, I'm also not sure if he's Ethiopia's top guy at Olympics&Worlds.

Pre was great hope in '72, along with Shorter. Wottle won in an upset.

Pre - US high school star, US college star, US Olympic hopeful. Winning at all levels builds a following.

Better tell him not to drink and drive then.

Pre was less of a Prefontaine than Kejelcha. If you look back at Pre’s races many of them were tactical. He really didn’t from run as much as the movies make it seem.

A choke artist?

Honestly, in an era of questionable performances and annoying personalities - we're lucky to watch yomif, aregawi, and Hagos. They don't win as often as they should, but you can count on the race being fun if they're in it.

If not for Cheptegei I think his legacy would be stronger, winning that 2019 gold may have powered him to be another Ethiopian great

Exactly. And not freaking Marco Langon that rojo has claimed to be.

I don’t believe any of races his races were tactical. Can you name one? I don’t think you looked back at all.

Just a couple of points in Yomif's favour vs Pre that you may not know.

1. Yomif is a WR holder.

2. This era is a lot more competitive in terms of worldwide participation - no disrespect to Pre.

Dead?

That wasn’t what the OP was asking. His question was whether Kejelcha runs as aggressively as Pre did.

Sir. I agree with the OP and you.

I was correcting another poster.

what is abt langon w rojo? i mean beyond the obvious thing, that he would go as far as to praise god about him. weird obsession

Yes, he does lack world medals but with - 3:32; 3:47i; 7:23; 12:38; 26:31; 57:30 at only 27yo, these next 4 years will be even greater.

Pre beat a few Americans.

But internationally Pre was a loser.

Kejelcha might be my favorite runner to watch, and the 5000 is his favorite distance, but in case you haven't figured it out yet he's now off the Ethiopian 5000 team (again) for World Champs in Tokyo. Here's why:

He went to Paris to break the WR because that was his only remaining chance to make the squad in the 5000. He was only the fourth best Ethiopian in the Oslo 5000 this year after Biniam Mehary, Kuma Girma and Hagos Gebrhiwet. Berihu Aregawi, possibly their best kicker, wasn't even in the race. Mezgebu Sime run 12:49, same time s Kejelcha.

He failed, so we can predict with 99,9% certainty that he's off the squad. Might still be allowed to run the 10000 (again) where's he's a 26,30 guy who has to break away before the last K, which should make it a fast and honest race causing carnage among the other runners in that race.

He reminds me of Eluid Kipchoge when Eluid was still on the track. Just year after year of high performance. The consistency of this cat is admirable.

Prefontaine ran 30 something races against international competition. He won over half of those. Came in top three in all of them except for one... where he came in fourth. And that one fourth is where all this "international loser" nonsense comes from.

As for Pre/front running/tactics and all that. Pre knew that he was at a disadvantage in a sit and kick race. So he didn't use a sit and kick race strategy. Tactically he was probably more a long driver type than a front runner IMO.

Easily the smartest strategy for him and for most anybody who isn't blessed with really great quarter speed.

He actually had pretty good leg speed and his 3:54 was probably faster than any of his international rivals. This is from his famous 1970 SI article:

“His speed is the key, and it is here, despite Bowerman's fears that Pre might never have as much as he would like, that Pre has shown great improvement. In just a year he has dropped his times in the 100 from 11.2 to 10.7; in the 220 from 25 to 23.2; and in the 440 from 51 to 49. "I can feel myself getting faster all the time," he says. "I work a lot with Roscoe for speed, and he works a lot with me for strength.”

It was odd that he tied up so often at the end of international races.