desert rodent wrote:
In defense of Mr. Gray - the reason he went out hard was he ran to his strengths. although he had speed, it was the long, sustained 400 meter type speed; not the leg speed sprint finish type that Seb Coe had. So pushing from the gun was better suited to him.
Is that a fair assessment, Mr. Gray?
I remember reading an interview with him where he noted that he felt more comfortable out in front due to his long, loping strides. He said it was difficult with his stride to run the middle of a pack, so he avoided the trouble and went to the front.
Certainly watching that video of the race with Cram shows how ungainly he ran while boxed in. Although you could chalk it up to "inexperience", it's a good chance that it was more efficient for a runner with his stride type to stay out of traffic.