I'm not going to lie, after that Oxy 5k, I slightly doubted him lowering the 10k AR at Pre, and judging from the prediction thread a couple weeks back, a lot of us did...
Now that we are done praising Rupp at his prime event, lets get down to the 5k, he's running against 12:46 man and Olympic 5k silver medalist, Dejen Gebremeskel, and also 12:48 man Yenew Alimerew who threw down 53 last laps to win DL Rome weeks back and 2013 DL Brussels... Also on the list is 12:49 man Peter Longosiwa (Olympic Bronze Medalist), 12:48 man- Isiah Koech, 12:53 man Image Merga, 13:01 man- Caleb Ndiku (World Indoor 3k champ), 12:48 man- Albert Rop, and 12:49 man- John Kipkoech)... Yes, Rome was a tactical race, and since Pre wasn't that fast either we're craving a low 12:5x race, and we we're not waiting til Paris/Monaco/Brussels... American's Lopez Lamong, Bumbalough will have their hands full, and studs like Arne Gabius (13:11), Zane Robertson (13:13), Brett Robinson (13:18) will be mid-pack looking for PR's
There's a ton of Ethiopins/Kenyan's here that will give Rupp a run for his money and he won't be pulling away from them like at Pre, and even w/ a great race, I don't see him winning this... He could very well get AR and be 3rd or 4th, which is crazy to think about...
Now, he's ran 13:01i which considering it was in January and his first meet of the season, was a better preformance than his 12:58 outdoor at Pre 2 years ago... W/ the fact that he did a 26:44, even though he's more of a 10k runner, I'd have to say he can def PR... 12:57 at least, but that's only if he doesn't have an unfocused race like Oxy...
My final guess will have to be 12:56 w/ a 3rd place finish, then Gebremeskel for the win in 12:53 w/ Ndiku at 12:54
Thanks for reading, let me know your feedback, I'm very excited for the race!