USA vs World DMR - A hard way to run 2:59 - 67-58-54 - - Leo finishes of 1600 with 54.3 to give USA the win!

2:04 at 800 for Leo.

302 high at 1200.

54.3 last 400. 357.18 for Leo.

Fun leg to watch. Torrence held off Gregson.

No teams from Africa this year.

USA on the lead on the 800 as we speak on NBCSN.

Anyone think USATF went out of there way to only show Leo in the Blue Street mile in the Hoka One One uniform for as little as possible?

The barely showed him in the Hoka One ONe and then showed him in the Nike USA outfit at Penn warming up. If I was Leo, I'd put a sticker over the Nike flag.

I was glad Torrence didn't let it dawdle too long. That was a pretty badass leg they way he and Gregson fought on the final turn

LetsRun.com wrote:

2:04 at 800 for Leo.

Leo did a "rope a dope" definition of "relaxed" 3:57 low on that anchor.

Nice job for the new Face of HokaOneOne.

Good guy, nice result.

What peopla actually care about:

1 United States 38.57 Charles Silmon, Justin Gatlin, Rakieem Salaam, Walter Dix USA

2 Jamaica 38.58 Jason Livermore, Michael Frater, Rasheed Dwyer, Oshane Bailey JAM

It's absurd that the opening 1200 legs of a DMR treat it as though it were a race in itself where the goal is to "win" the leg.

The strongest runner should be trying to build up the biggest time advantage. It's not cycling; drafting doesn't mean that much.

It's on my mind because I watched Adams State lose the D2 indoor DMR at Nationals because of this. They had a very strong opening leg who should have given them a big advantage over Ashland, which had its weakest runner on the 1200.

But, instead of being aggressive, the Adams State guy went right to the back of the pack to tailgun, as though his only job was to hand off the baton first. He doesn't get the advantage he should have gotten and Adams State winds up losing the DMR to Ashland by one second.

Yeah, but the question is how guaranteed it is that Torrence could have run away from Gregson having to lead the whole 1200m by himself at a fast pace.

coach d wrote:

What peopla actually care about:

1 United States 38.57 Charles Silmon, Justin Gatlin, Rakieem Salaam, Walter Dix USA

2 Jamaica 38.58 Jason Livermore, Michael Frater, Rasheed Dwyer, Oshane Bailey JAM

It was fantastically close finish and its good to see Walter Dix is uninjured at least for the moment.

I was surprised they didn't say anything about the Brazilian team considering Rio is on the horizon. It would be good to know some of their players. They talked some about Nigeria because of Maurice Greene, but boy they get their asses beat. Does anyone know who was on the Chinese team?

Benjamin Franklin Field wrote:

Yeah, but the question is how guaranteed it is that Torrence could have run away from Gregson having to lead the whole 1200m by himself at a fast pace.

If you absolutely know that you ohly have one legitimate opponent and you have a good basis to believe that opponent is very close to you in fitness, then, yeah, you might be able to justify it.

But that's very rarely going to be the case. As a rule, the 1200 legs should be going for it from the gun, no excuses for dawdling.

OK here are the full results, including the Chinese:

Certainly, everyone other than USA and JAM should be hearing footsteps--the Chinese are coming.

And let's not forget that 4X4 baron screw up. Verburg ran a terrific leg against Chris Brown to up USA in position to win....and then almost passed the baton TO THE OTHER TEAM!.

I think that's an original.

eff the draft wrote:

It's absurd that the opening 1200 legs of a DMR treat it as though it were a race in itself where the goal is to "win" the leg.

The strongest runner should be trying to build up the biggest time advantage. It's not cycling; drafting doesn't mean that much.

It's on my mind because I watched Adams State lose the D2 indoor DMR at Nationals because of this.

I agree with you a little but disagree a lot as well. You want Torrence to just crush it from the start. The fact is it's spring in PHilly and is windy.

If drafting doesn't matter, then why do races have rabbits? Torrence and Gregson are pretty evenly matched. If you push it from the start with guy who is just as god as you, they will use you as the rabbit.

RESULTS

PL SCHOOL/AFFILIATION MARK ATHLETES ID

1 United States 9:28.27 David Torrence (2:59.43), Quentin Iglehart-Summers (46.12), Brandon Johnson (1:45.55), Leonel Manzano (3:57.18) USA

2 Australia 9:30.74 Ryan Gregson (2:59.85), John Steffensen (46.17), Josh Ralph (1:49.12), Collis Birmingham (3:55.61) AUS

3 Ireland 9:42.83 John Travers (3:01.99), Brian Gregan (46.31), Paul Robinson (1:48.59), John Coghlan (4:05.95) IRL

4 Mexico 10:00.41 Edgar Quiroz (3:03.66), Jose Fraire (48.15), Bryan Martinez (1:55.13), Christopher Sandoval (4:13.47)

rojo wrote:

eff the draft wrote:

It's absurd that the opening 1200 legs of a DMR treat it as though it were a race in itself where the goal is to "win" the leg.

The strongest runner should be trying to build up the biggest time advantage. It's not cycling; drafting doesn't mean that much.

It's on my mind because I watched Adams State lose the D2 indoor DMR at Nationals because of this.

I agree with you a little but disagree a lot as well. You want Torrence to just crush it from the start. The fact is it's spring in PHilly and is windy.

If drafting doesn't matter, then why do races have rabbits? Torrence and Gregson are pretty evenly matched. If you push it from the start with guy who is just as god as you, they will use you as the rabbit.

As I mentioned in follow-up post, if you know there is only one team in the race that can give you legitimate opposition, and you know your opposing leg from that team is very close to you in fitness, then you can justify the "tactical" approach to the opening leg.

That's not often going to be the case in major DMRs. My intent wasn't so much to criticize Torrence but to make the more general point exemplified by what happened at D2 indoors.

Even on a somewhat windy day outdoors, if you're the strongest runner on the 1200, you're probably giving away advantage for your team if you just stick with the field until late in the leg.

Nice run by Birmingham.

The 1200 leg was embarrassing honestly. Jogging the first 200 for what? Surprised they ran 2:59 even. No Kenya? what happen? Nice leg by Johnson!

Whoa! That's even more impressive by China, they didn't have either of their big names running (I thought the anchor was Su, but I guess he just looks a but like him).

I guess we should have suspected some trouble in the 4x400m, I mean the US just barely didn't screw up the pass in the 4x100, so I guess the universe was just trying to get the natural order back

Hey, I ran on a 4X1 that got DQed (not me, I was running leadoff) last week. But even by USA standards, laying the baton into the hands of the other team is legendary. That just shows how much greater skills the pros have compared to us amateurs (tongue firmly planted in cheek).

But want nobody has commented on:

"Surging Dix takes Jamaica from behind"

Good to see Walter back healthy, running anchor. He ran 10.11 at Occidental last year, but wasn't really there yet.

a skeptic wrote:

Anyone think USATF went out of there way to only show Leo in the Blue Street mile in the Hoka One One uniform for as little as possible?

The barely showed him in the Hoka One ONe and then showed him in the Nike USA outfit at Penn warming up. If I was Leo, I'd put a sticker over the Nike flag.

They didn't have to show the Blue Mile at all. Stop with your stupid nike conspiracy. Old news.