Why does everyone think Farah choked?

yeah but what doesnt make sense about your post is that you added "only wins once".

His season undefeated was long. XC, road, track.

He had over 5 seconds on top runners back in 3rd and beyond.

The race was run with quite a negative split, and a blazing final 800 thanks to Farah.

He lost by .26 seconds and held close until maybe 10 meters to go. He grimaced, gave it all he seemed to have, and did not let up.

To me that is a pretty good race.

Jeilan, as we read about him, came in with a bone to pick with his own organization. And if you have ever visited Ethiopia (I have), had a lot to gain. If you have not visited, 2nd best is to find a copy of the movie Endurance about Haile G and get a sense of what common living standards of the wonderful Ethiopians are.

Great race by both. Edge of my seat. I do think the commentators, as with the Kaki 800 heat, need to stop calling races before they are over.

i would not use the word choked here. but i do agree that he showed exactly the same tactic he used in the grand prix race. He relied on his kick based on the GP races...and that is not enough to win a final. A race with a pace of 26:50ish may have dropped the african kickers...

BTW even bekele at his prime would have nicked a fading farah. He went too hard from 480 50 about 200 to go. 27 for last 200 is not fast.

EB55 wrote:

He relied on his kick based on the GP races...and that is not enough to win a final. A race with a pace of 26:50ish may have dropped the african kickers...

He ran his last lap in 53, which is what Bekele has been doing to win every 10,000 title since 2003. He dropped Merga, Sihine, and Tadesse like they were children. No one expected Jeilan to do what he did . . . dude closed in 52.8. Bekele in his prime would be hard pressed to match that kick in that scenario.

MAKid wrote:

His last 400 was 53.37, his last 200 was ~27.0, and his last 100 was ~13.5.

What exactly should he have done differently? I thought his execution was excellent. There's just not much you can do when someone else closes in sub 53.

If this is correct then his 2nd to last 200m was ~26.37 and then he slowed down to ~27. In a 400m race this wouldn't be a big deal, but in a 10k race it says he pushed just a little too hard too early. I wouldn't say he chocked i.e. he could've won, but if his splits were even over the last 200m it would've been that much closer. So, he should have left another gear for the last 100m by going just a tad slower (.x's slower), but I doubt that would've changed the outcome of yesterday's race.

I'd be interested to see the splits for the last four laps for the entire field.

If Mo Farah choked, then what did the U.S. steeplers do?

Silly Old Fossil wrote:

If Mo Farah choked, then what did the U.S. steeplers do?

They swallowed.

cah87 wrote:

If this is correct then his 2nd to last 200m was ~26.37 and then he slowed down to ~27. In a 400m race this wouldn't be a big deal, but in a 10k race it says he pushed just a little too hard too early.

The reality is that the winner was just better than Farah on this particular day. The only way Farah had a chance (admittedly with the benefit of hindisght) was to push harder, earlier - possibly WAY earlier to make it a 26:50 race and see if anyone could hang with him.

Going into the race Farah had no way of knowing this so he neither choked nor made any (pre-race knowable) tactical errors. He just lost to someone who had a better kick, regardless of where it started.