In Praise of David Torrence

Agreed. It was awesome to see he understood what needed to be done and was all-in. Tactically savvy combined with balls of steel.

I'm surprised no one made a bigger deal out of Pat Casey's run. He went head-to-head against 3 guys who have run 3:31 and beat them all. And the first leg was very tactical.

Everyone on the team ran a good race minus Leo. Really glad to see Torrence with a strong race

For 3 laps he made the impossible look possible.

He certainly laid it on the line, great race by Torrence.

Welcome to Tom Byers' average day at the office. Or Alan Webb's.

malmo wrote:

Welcome to Tom Byers' average day at the office. Or Alan Webb's.

The Brojos have always used "one of the best ever" very lightly.

and more than justified his selection over heath.

He slowed down that last 150. Yes, he stuck his nose in it but was it really the smartest thing to do?

Alb E wrote:

He slowed down that last 150. Yes, he stuck his nose in it but was it really the smartest thing to do?

Yes. It was a relay - one leg at a time. His aim, after Casey put HIM in a good position, was to try and hand it off to Leer also on terms with the Kenyans. Didn't quite workout, but he did his best. Sitting back and "kicking" would have been worse since no one was going to pull him to the kenyan guy (Kiplagat). It meant that Leer and Manzano were all alone (until Wote begain to close on leo) and so it was effectively over in terms of beating the Kenyan team - unrealistic anyway as even on even terms Manzano (or anyone else either for that matter) wouldn't beat Kiprop.

This was certainly one of the all time great races never seen by .... anyone.? I have no doubt that this is the kind of race that will propel track into the psyche of all Americans. Keep up the good work.

Sure, he ran bold. If you're saying bold is running faster than you know you can run for three laps and then dying. By the way, I love the way he ran, but I don't get what all the praise is about. He was clearly overmatched and could not hang with the Kiplagat. He was second-best in that leg and that's about as good as you can state it.

I like Torrence a lot.

But he ran 3 seconds slower than his PR and gave up 4 seconds to Kiplagat (who also ran 3 seconds slower than his PR).

Seems like Torrence could have had a better result and kept the US closer.

Fixed the title.

Wasn't Torrence the guy who ran the 4:05ish dog split on the anchor at penn relays a few year ago?

Got the stick with a huge lead, got swallowed up, and then dropped even off his slow pace?

He should never be allowed to wear the USA uniform again after that performance.

What Coe did, according to his father, when he was young and racing against adults was to go with the field as far as he could go until he was broken, but no one else noticed that he was being broken farther and farther along every time until no one could stay with him. Americans may not have been close enough in shape to do that but they also lacked that mindset. Webb certainly had it (he could have used some restraint in the worlds of 2005, of course, when he started sprinting at around 800m in) and Lagat has it. If Torrence tries this a few times in Euro races, he may get a major breakthrough, especially with his new more intense Aden workouts.

Malmo, well stated, I pretty much agree with that.

I think the only thing he gets any credit for and I guess this is a big deal nowadays to some is not entirely giving in to a 53.x opener, and probably stressed at 1:50.x which is kind of over his head a little I would think.

With this run in his legs through the 1300 meter mark, it will be fun to see how Torrence fares in his next few races.

Could be he'll be ready to run a tough pace and kick off it.

Md md wrote:

Wasn't Torrence the guy who ran the 4:05ish dog split on the anchor at penn relays a few year ago?

Got the stick with a huge lead, got swallowed up, and then dropped even off his slow pace?

He should never be allowed to wear the USA uniform again after that performance.

He actually split 3:56. But Kenya & Ethiopia ran 3:52.