OK. But WHY did he have a bad day? There are reasons for these sort of things, you know. Suddenly it's not okay to give reasons for poor performances, they're simply chalked up to bad days? Maybe there are times when inexplicably a runner is a bit off their game, but like you said, Teg seemed so ready, coming off an 8:07 and 1500 PR...I would think it to be obvious that there were some specific reasons why he didn't perform his best, not just the flaming generality 'he had a bad day'.
If your sick of hearing what you count as excuses, then you've never competed at a high level before. To have the perfect race there's a whole bunch of things that have to happen, and they have to happen all at once. It's why even the greatest of runners have 'off' days. Even the Africans. They have flaws like the rest of the human race - look at Bekele at World XC, Geb at London, etc.
Once you get above the middle school level of duel meet after duel meet, 'consistency' begins to lose it's importance. What's key is that you run THE right race at the right time. Even in high school and college, there is usually one goal race. For Tegenkamp and Ritz, I'm sure it's the World Championships, not some random European circuit meet.