Cranny 4th, Efraimson 6th in WJ 1500

It's a shame Cain didn't run this race; it was set up perfectly for her.

Alexa really went for it and paid the price. But it's not hard to respect such a valiant effort to grab a medal. Bright futures lay ahead for American women's middle distance running between these two laides and Mary Cain.

Got manhandled by Ethiopian winner right before the bell. Alexa again ran in lane two most of the race and then got pushed around by an athlete that weights 30lbs less than her.

All results pending (eventual) gender testing.

http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/630927-is-she-a-he-fury-over-athlete-s-gender-at-namboole.html

Good run for both of them.

At the same time, it is kind of weird to think that the 2nd & 3rd fastest american female HS 1500m runners ever finished out of the medals in this race.

It's been a long year for both of them and they should be proud.

John Stuart Mill wrote:

At the same time, it is kind of weird to think that the 2nd & 3rd fastest american female HS 1500m runners ever finished out of the medals in this race.

Can't imagine why that strikes you as odd. The fastest male HS 800m runner ever would have finished in sixth place in the final just completed.

Interesting to read all of this. The Universal Sports cable TV "live" coverage is actually on about a ten-minute tape delay.

Seems like the USA would have gone at least 2-4-6 in this race if Cain had run. Pretty impressive.

PIL wrote:

Got manhandled by Ethiopian winner right before the bell. Alexa again ran in lane two most of the race and then got pushed around by an athlete that weights 30lbs less than her.

She needs a few of these races to understand international track racing and international championship racing. bumping , shoving are all a part of it , more so with many of the jr.s as they are still learning the game.

As if it's not hard enough to run the Ethiopian times, the team tactics only add to the mixture...

What exactly was happening with Tsegay and Seyaum? It was easy enough to see the hand signals on the 2nd lap - but what was it really saying? "I'm stringing things out for the next x meters?" At one point it looks like Tsegay was going to give Seyaum a free pass on the inside if she wanted it. A little later on - Seyaum had to throw some elbows to get herself free. Is the unspoken policy to work together until the bell and then it's anybody's game, no favors, etc...

troglodyte wrote:

Seems like the USA would have gone at least 2-4-6 in this race if Cain had run. Pretty impressive.

Or 2-5-7...

No. That would mean 5th and 7th for Cranny and Efraimson. Sorry Dawit Seyaum, but you would have finished 2nd if Cain was in it. She would have blew you out of the water in the last 400. What was Seyaum's last 400? 62-63?

wdude wrote:

No. That would mean 5th and 7th for Cranny and Efraimson. Sorry Dawit Seyaum, but you would have finished 2nd if Cain was in it. She would have blew you out of the water in the last 400. What was Seyaum's last 400? 62-63?

Dawit might've run a different strategy if Cain was in the race. In fact, I'm pretty sure she would've gone a lot harder, as if she was racing against Simpson in NYC again.

PIL wrote:

Got manhandled by Ethiopian winner right before the bell. Alexa again ran in lane two most of the race and then got pushed around by an athlete that weights 30lbs less than her.

There's more to being fast in trying to win a medal at the championship level. Great runner but obviously hasn't been taught the first thing about high level racing. Ran 1520-1530 meters and didn't even try to defend her position with 420 to go. Got passed again on the inside with 250 to go, got bumped outside again with 200 to go. With better tactics she medals.

wdude wrote:

No. That would mean 5th and 7th for Cranny and Efraimson. Sorry Dawit Seyaum, but you would have finished 2nd if Cain was in it. She would have blew you out of the water in the last 400. What was Seyaum's last 400? 62-63?

Let's revisit this in another month, when Cain's had the chance to show what kind of times she's got in her legs...

If she can pop a 3:59 in Europe, let's call them even down to the kick.

Somehow, I highly doubt it. Why didn't the women with faster PRS then Cain in the 3k do that then? Just because Seyaum beat Simpson in the 1500 in May doesn't make her better than. Cain is improving rapidly going into August. Sub 4 is definitely in the cards before the fall.

Let them settle it out on the DL in August (2x1500 races)

John Stuart Mill wrote:

Good run for both of them.

At the same time, it is kind of weird to think that the 2nd & 3rd fastest american female HS 1500m runners ever finished out of the medals in this race.

It's been a long year for both of them and they should be proud.

Agree that both should be proud of their seasons and efforts here.

Here is more context for considering this 4th & 6th USA finish in this event: In 15 editions of this WJ championship, USA women have never earned a medal. It has not been all that often that USA has even had anyone in the final. IAAF's Web site does not have complete results linked for the first six editions of this championship (86, 88, 90, 92, 94, 96), so I don't know if USA had anyone in the final in those years. However, in the next four editions (98, 00, 02, 04) USA had no finalists. Since then, it has looked like this:

2006 Erin Bedell, 10th.

2008 Hasay 4th, Alexandra Kosinski 6th

2010 Hasay 4th

2012 Cain 6th

And now this 4th & 6th.

So, even though I don't have the first 6 of these championship complete results to look at, to see if any USA women were among the non-medalists in the final, I'm reasonably certain that Cranny & Efraimson have equalled USA's best results in this event at the WJC. Overall, the trend is positive, even if no medals resulted here.

"There's more to being fast in trying to win a medal at the championship level. Great runner but obviously hasn't been taught the first thing about high level racing. Ran 1520-1530 meters and didn't even try to defend her position with 420 to go. Got passed again on the inside with 250 to go, got bumped outside again with 200 to go. With better tactics she medals."

Good observations. She is quite inexperienced in this realm and it showed in this race.