Flagpole wrote:
so his ONLY course of action is to do what I've suggested
Nope. No. Nada.
He would be the sacrificial lamb attempting to lead and press the pace by himself. Anyone (with the exception of a few like Geb, Bekele, El G) who tried that in a high level championship race is going to get chewed up and spit out. You have to lead and carry the pace yourself, and once you give up the lead that is going to be it. You give up the lead for one of two reasons. The boys behind have got finally got a head of steam and are going to roll right by you (while thanking you for getting things rolling). Or, you decide to ease off the pace and others pass you and ease off the pace even more, setting it up for a tactical race.
I'm a big Ritz fan, and he is really talented, but he (or others at his level) are not going to medal a a major championship by trying to lead the field and press the pace from the gun. He stands are greater chance of medaling by letting the race unfold and making sure that he is always positioning himself (like Kara Goucher did in 07). Maybe at some point during the race you see an opportunity to press. But again, with the exception of a few, once you do that you have to take it all the way home.
Championship racing at the level is incredibly tricky. The line between getting a medal or not is incredibly small. Everything has to line up to be your day. And with that said, it only points out how amazing someone like Bekele has performed in championship races.