In his newsletter says A+ amazing result for Femke 1:59. I think she will get crushed on 3rd 200m from all the strength girls. Great national record, but against the pros zero chance.
Merber is wrong. Merber is usually wrong, his opinions regarding track have the intelligence of a 6 year old.
This was like a C+ for Femke. 1:59 is not a bad result, but based on the requested pace she was clearly far off of her goal time. Her execution was not great and it's clear her 49 speed is not going to be helping her at the end of the race because her kick was very weak.
I think she can compete pretty well against pros as she gets more experience, but she will never come close to medaling at World Championships.
Are we fking stupid she ran 1:59 indoors in February as a former 400mh runner. I was so worried she'd crawl to a 2:03. This result gives her major upside especially the way that she ran it lol.
Are we fking stupid she ran 1:59 indoors in February as a former 400mh runner. I was so worried she'd crawl to a 2:03. This result gives her major upside especially the way that she ran it lol.
Are we fking stupid she ran 1:59 indoors in February as a former 400mh runner. I was so worried she'd crawl to a 2:03. This result gives her major upside especially the way that she ran it lol.
6/10 troll bc I replied
But you have to consider Femke was #2 in the world in the 400h (possibly #1 depending on if Syd is pregnant or if Syd is focusing on the 400).
Femke shows ZERO sign of ever reaching #2 in the world in the 800. If you knew a damn thing about running the 800 at a high level, you'd understand that she'll never even beat Sage Hurta-Klecker's PR.
She got to run the whole thing in lane 1 with the shortest possible distance. She will get cooked having to navigate positioning in a crowded race with her long strides, running extra distance in outside lanes to pass, and having to negative split in championship meets.
If you think Athing Mu trips a lot of people, just wait until Femke is in a crowd.
Are we fking stupid she ran 1:59 indoors in February as a former 400mh runner. I was so worried she'd crawl to a 2:03. This result gives her major upside especially the way that she ran it lol.
6/10 troll bc I replied
But you have to consider Femke was #2 in the world in the 400h (possibly #1 depending on if Syd is pregnant or if Syd is focusing on the 400).
Femke shows ZERO sign of ever reaching #2 in the world in the 800. If you knew a damn thing about running the 800 at a high level, you'd understand that she'll never even beat Sage Hurta-Klecker's PR.
She got to run the whole thing in lane 1 with the shortest possible distance. She will get cooked having to navigate positioning in a crowded race with her long strides, running extra distance in outside lanes to pass, and having to negative split in championship meets.
If you think Athing Mu trips a lot of people, just wait until Femke is in a crowd.
It's been 1 race. 1. We have no idea what her race plan was. We haven't seen her in a position to navigate traffic. Anyone drawing and conclusions beyond she'll have no problem going sub 2:00 is crazy.
But if her ceiling is Sage's PR, you're saying she's good enough to get 5th at a world championship. Are we really looking down on that?
This post is so strange. You act as if her running 1:55 will delete you from existence. This was her first ever 800m. She paced it poorly, and she still won. In FEBRUARY. As a collegiate coach, if I had a male athlete with her background transitioning to the 800, I would have no doubt in my mind that this 1:59 performance did not preclude him from running 1:53 or so by the end of the outdoor season. Even factoring in the fact that male physiology is most different from women’s in the 800-1500 I would say 1:55 is well within the cards for Bol this outdoor season. She is a COMPETITOR, but maybe that takes one to know one. The extra people in the race will not slow her down, they will speed her up. You can blabber on and on about the things that will slow her down, but it won’t change the FACT that she is going to train and race with the intention to be the best in the world, and she may damn well achieve it.
Femke shows ZERO sign of ever reaching #2 in the world in the 800. If you knew a damn thing about running the 800 at a high level, you'd understand that she'll never even beat Sage Hurta-Klecker's PR.
Bro she literally beat Sage's indoor 800m PR in her first ever race... Femke 1:59.07, Sage 2:00.13...
If you think this was a bad performance you never raced the 800m at an elite level or even sub elite level.
you have to take a comprehensive approach to evaluating this performance. For those of us who have run this distance with moderate success can see from watching the race how she felt and how she utilized her energy as well as how she handled the logistics of racing this distance and the way it is structured. Meaning having a pacer, breaking in and running in contact of others, being in no man’s land she’s usually trying to run someone down unless it’s an outdoor 400mh.
she ran very well all things considered. She made some mistakes that for someone who is running their first 800 would make but she held her composure and used her grit to close the race to the line without falling apart. This is similar to how sydney has her struggles with the open 400 where she was getting to the 200m too quick and was struggling the last 50m but could hold it together through the line. And she wasn’t new to the 400 just new to it at the pro level and look what happened when she figured it out.
Femke went a lil too hard first 200m and she settled too much from 400-600 so she had to dig herself out of that hole to close the last 200m and not get caught. She also pulled those girls behind her to lifetime PBs. The girl that finished 2nd has been steadily improving the past 2-3 years and is young but very experienced at the 800 having a lot of success as a youth runner.
Femke will run the 800m MUCH better outdoors I could see a 1:55/1:56 right out the gate if she opens in an elite field or has a great pacer set up to take her through 600m
If you think this was a bad performance you never raced the 800m at an elite level or even sub elite level.
you have to take a comprehensive approach to evaluating this performance. For those of us who have run this distance with moderate success can see from watching the race how she felt and how she utilized her energy as well as how she handled the logistics of racing this distance and the way it is structured. Meaning having a pacer, breaking in and running in contact of others, being in no man’s land she’s usually trying to run someone down unless it’s an outdoor 400mh.
she ran very well all things considered. She made some mistakes that for someone who is running their first 800 would make but she held her composure and used her grit to close the race to the line without falling apart. This is similar to how sydney has her struggles with the open 400 where she was getting to the 200m too quick and was struggling the last 50m but could hold it together through the line. And she wasn’t new to the 400 just new to it at the pro level and look what happened when she figured it out.
Femke went a lil too hard first 200m and she settled too much from 400-600 so she had to dig herself out of that hole to close the last 200m and not get caught. She also pulled those girls behind her to lifetime PBs. The girl that finished 2nd has been steadily improving the past 2-3 years and is young but very experienced at the 800 having a lot of success as a youth runner.
Femke will run the 800m MUCH better outdoors I could see a 1:55/1:56 right out the gate if she opens in an elite field or has a great pacer set up to take her through 600m
For the record, Merber doesn’t write The Lap Count, and he hasn’t in quite some time. He stopped writing it when he left for Grand Slam and it’s now written by David Melly, Chris Chavez, and Paul Snyder, collectively.
In his newsletter says A+ amazing result for Femke 1:59. I think she will get crushed on 3rd 200m from all the strength girls. Great national record, but against the pros zero chance.
The fact that you subscribe and read his newsletter says a lot about your intellect. She went under 2, indoors. Meh. Decent start. Let's see how she develops throughout the season, especially outdoor. Clearly not ready for prime time. Why grade it or try to predict where she will come up short?
Are we fking stupid she ran 1:59 indoors in February as a former 400mh runner. I was so worried she'd crawl to a 2:03. This result gives her major upside especially the way that she ran it lol.
6/10 troll bc I replied
But you have to consider Femke was #2 in the world in the 400h (possibly #1 depending on if Syd is pregnant or if Syd is focusing on the 400).
Femke shows ZERO sign of ever reaching #2 in the world in the 800. If you knew a damn thing about running the 800 at a high level, you'd understand that she'll never even beat Sage Hurta-Klecker's PR.
She got to run the whole thing in lane 1 with the shortest possible distance. She will get cooked having to navigate positioning in a crowded race with her long strides, running extra distance in outside lanes to pass, and having to negative split in championship meets.
If you think Athing Mu trips a lot of people, just wait until Femke is in a crowd.
I mean, both arguments are speculation, but I think your sir is wildly off base. He claimed a prophesies how she’s gonna race in a race when she actually has people to race against?
Also, she has more foot speed than Klecker does .. so that aerobic fitness think about where it’s gonna be in another five months..
I think you’re just mad you didn’t break two minutes in high school.. lol
Merber is smoking on that Citius pack and rarely offers sane, comprehensible, objective takes. I enjoyed his reactions quite a bit before he signed on with CM.
That said, everyone is either over, or under, rating Femke's performance. One race with some good and some bad against a weak field set up for her to run unobstructed.
Time will tell. She certainly has upside. I expected a 1:59-2:01 and that's what we got. Is she a 1:56 runner this year? Maybe, probably not.
Yeah, A+ seems about right. She's an incredible athlete but this is far enough out of her speciality that she gets to start with a blank slate. And she tests the waters with a 1:59? Wow. Focus at this stage is about learning and gaining experience for when the real racing starts. For her to find her full potential, things can't go perfectly in races like this, so she can understand how to adjust and race this event perfectly. Sure, she made a few mistakes, but she was a gamer and still ran quick for the win. Awesome, A+.
She is the 47th fastest indoor 800m runner of all time, in her one and only attempt. If she runs exactly 1 second faster after a few more attempts she'll be the 18th fastest all-time. Focusing a full season and getting 2 seconds faster than her debut gets her into the top 5 all-time.
I would call that a B- for her. Breaking 2:00 and winning the race is perfectly respectable for her debut, but she clearly hoped to run significantly faster. While the pacing wasn't necessarily optimal, it was well within the normal range for 800 running. With her pedigree, I think it's very possible for her to become a 1:55/56 runner someday and get into the medal conversation, but she has a long way to go from where she is right now.