coach d wrote:
I fully understand why the Ethiopians did what they did in the 10000--Bekele past his prime, so they set it up for Jeilan. I think Jailan would have beaten Farah again if he had been healthy and 100% the second time.
The way I see it:
-- A Slow pace favors long distance guys with high sprint speed (Farah, Rupp)
--Lagat is a former 3:26 guy. He has trained most of his career to kick off a fast pace. A hard, honest pace with a 200-300m kick plays into Lagat's hands, not Rupp or others who train for slower paces.
--If you want to beat Lagat, you do what Bekele and El Guerrouj (or Cram) did--ramp it up hard from 600 out. THIS is what I would have done if I was coaching Hill in Albuquerque.
+1 to coach d. The problem with taking it out hard in an unrabbited race is that chances are the one pushing the pace will slack off some in the middle, allowing the kicker to rest, thus leaving it to the finish any way: eg Marty Liquori's commentary on the battle between Bekele and Guerrouj, saying that Bekele should have gone hard from two miles outs, as the race had effectively become a mile race (and who is gonna beat the best Miler in history at that distance?)
I think Galen made a good move trying to go out hard, but he was a little late with it, though in the altitude I dont think he would have handled a longer surge much better.