[quote]xxxxxx333333 wrote:
He was .02 ahead of Martin.
With his racing style he will get eaten alive by Symmonds and Andrews and if he tries to sit and kick he will have no hard experience doing it.
Jock is setting himself up for failure. It would have been much wiser in this race to go out easy and get some experience of sitting and kicking. Instead Jock misses another chance. The time isn't so important it was winning and the way he should have won that was.
/quote]
This is absolutely wrong. It isn't like Jock almost got beat on a big kick, Martin was on his shoulder the whole way and ran a damn good race.
With somebody like Symmonds, going out crazy hard may actually be the best strategy. I believe he said in some interviews post-World that he doesn't handle a fast early pace or lots of surges very well (which is why Rudisha's 23.X opening 200 basically took him out of the race). I doubt that Jock can absolutely control a race like Rudisha but with his frontrunning style it wouldn't be a bad idea to give it a shot.
I agree that Jock should probably find a different running style, but I'm not sure his conference meet was the time to do it. In rounds at Daegu last year he tried hanging back in the pack and wasn't a factor in the race at all. If Jock was going to learn how to kick, he'd be better off trying it at some lower-key meets. He's definitely got the wheels for it, but timing/positioning take a while to learn how to do well.
Also, I think I read an interview with Jock last year where he said he actually prefers going out crazy-hard because it usually eliminates all but 1 or 2 other competitors whereas in a kicker's race just about anyone can win. Maybe not too applicable on the world stage, but you gotta admire his heart.