Homeless in Seattle wrote:
Simmons ran on the outside of Lane 1 most of the way, the distance that he ran in lane 2 was very nominal. The OP either has not watched the race, or is exaggerating. Good race by both Solomon and Symmonds, both appear to be peaking at the right time.
Ventolin has a point. I just looked at the race which I recorded and I calculate that Symmonds ran between 6 and 6.5 m further than 800m, which would have given him an 800 time of c. 1:43.0 had he been able to run on the inside of lane 1. Rotich on the other hand was pretty much on the inside of lane 1 all the way.
In other words, there isn't much between them over 800m.
The worst bend for Symmonds was the first one after 200m, where he ran about 70m of it on the inside of lane 2, and the remaining 30m just on or inside the line with lane 1. Had he run all the bend in lane 2, then that is running an extra 3.5m, so I would suggest he ran about 3m more than necessary. Interestingly he ran that curve 100m in 12.8 (compared to Rotich's 12.6) , but in essence he was running faster than Rotich (around 12.4 for 100m). Looking at all of Symmonds 100 splits, he really needs to go off a bit faster in first 200m, get a better position and then just hold the curb, regardless of how fast the others are running around him. He tends to run more even splits, so the others will come back on the 2nd lap anyway, but he can't afford to give away a few metres on each curve.
He was not as wide on the 2nd curve, after 400m, as he stayed in lane 1 all the way riund, albeit on the outside of the lane. I'd estimate he ran about 2m further than necessary here. Again, this bend was run in 12.8 (compared to Rotich's 13.1!) by Symmonds, but it would have felt (been) like 12.6 due to running wide.
His last bend from 600 - 700 wasn't too wasteful, and it's often expected to run a little wide at this stage, but he still ran about 1 - 1.5 m further than necessary. Here he ran the curve in 13.4, compared to Rotich's 13.3, but by this stage Symmonds had run an accumulative total of 5m more than the Kenyan.
Here are the two's split times: -
Rotich - 50.2/52.9
24.9, 25.3, 26.3 (1:16.5), 26.6 = 1:43.13
His 100s went ~ 12.4, 12.5, 12.6, 12.7, 13.1, 13.2, 13.3, 13.3.
The classic example of sustained slowing gradually over each successive 100m.
Symmonds - 51.0/ 52.7 ( had he not run wide, then it was equivalent to 50.6/52.3)
25.4 (too slow, he should be able to manage sub 25.0 without any effect to his lactate threshold later on), 25.6, 26.0, 26.7 = 1:43.78
His 100s were 12.8, 12.6, 12.8 (3m extra so more like 12.4!), 12.8, 12.8 (2m extra so more like 12.6), 13.2, 13.4 (1.5m wide, so = to about 13.2) & 13.3
So Symmonds has to change his pace at different times during the race, which makes him less efficient.