We got an email last night from tv commentator Tim Hutchings, who was 4th at the 1984 Olympic 5000, who said he's getting ready for Tuesday's meet in Zagreb. He said newly crowned Olympic 1500 champ Taoufik Makhloufi is there as well and looking to run really fast.
Tim Hutchings wrote:
I’m in Zagreb and just heard that Olympic 1500m champ Makhloufi is running the 1500 here on Tuesday – and chasing 2012 best. He wants 2:48 at 1200m.
The 2012 world lead is the 3:28.88 that Abel Kiprop ran in Monaco on July 20th - some 2.5 weeks before the Olympic final. In that same race, Makhloufi ran his pb of 3:30.80 for 5th.
He then ran away with the Olympic title on August 7th and then ran a pb in the 800 in Stockholm on August 17th of 1:43.71.
Could Makhloufi be 2-seconds better now than he was on July 20th? We certainly think it's a real possibility.
This morning Hutchings wrote back and added this morning that he had dinner with Makhloufi. A few interesting tidbits about that.
Tim Hutchings wrote:
I sat with not only Makhloufi at dinner last night here in Zagreb, but with World Junior Champ Driouche and their coach Jama Aden. Turns out their training group is rather good………….Makhloufi, Driouche, Kaki and the new Djibouti kid who ran 3:30 in Hengelo, Souleiman....
He only transferred to Aden’s training group last year; Jama said that his training before was all over the place and he had to do a lot of it alone. As we’ve seen many times before, if you train with a great group, it can really bring you on.
LetsRun knows there are many skeptics about the manner with Makhloufi ran away with the 1500 title in London. But we remind people he did run 3:32 two years ago, he did run 3:30 in July and he now trains in one of the most loaded groups in the world. And unlike the Russian or Turk women - he's not shying away from the circuit.
