World Record Alert - 2015 Official Bislett Games Live Discussion Thread - Dibaba goes for 5000 glory at 3:10 pm ET

Ger_Miler wrote:

I really don't like the negativity from the commentators "faded badly, blah bla". I think it was awesome, that he went through 1:53 and tried to go for it.

I wouldn't call it negative. He did fade badly, that part is just honest.

It would be nice to some support for an athlete going for it, and the commentators both failed to notice how slow times have been across the board. In hindsight going through that fast was clearly way to much given the conditions.

I'd never heard of the 3rd placer in the men's mile, Hannes of Belgium, who closed very well against Kiprop and Kiplagat, but he ran 3:34.49 last year and 3:35 the previous year. His 3:51 is a four second mile pr, but comparable to his 1500m pr.

LM wrote:

Ger_Miler wrote:

I really don't like the negativity from the commentators "faded badly, blah bla". I think it was awesome, that he went through 1:53 and tried to go for it.

I wouldn't call it negative. He did fade badly, that part is just honest.

It would be nice to some support for an athlete going for it, and the commentators both failed to notice how slow times have been across the board. In hindsight going through that fast was clearly way to much given the conditions.

Agree with this. Props to Souleiman.

Just underscores how impressive Dibaba's run was. 14:21 with awful pacemaking. Given how slow the rest of the races were, I think that may be her best performance yet.

How much faster would Dibaba have run if the lapped runners had moved over?

And the outdoor records continue to elude Miss indoors.

Also, I must admit sit and kick has gotten really bad, hasn't it? It's gotten so bad the field frequently ignores it when an athlete goes with the pacemaker.

Just look at Coburn, Muir, and even Souleiman today. I'm beginning to believe that in the current atmosphere there are a lot of athletes that could get a win opening a gap on the field following the pacemaker, as the field rarely seems to want to go.

.

rojo wrote:

What a great women's 1500. Laura Muir went with the rabbit 63-208 and no one else did. She had a 3.5 second lead at the bell and managed to hold on and win it.

What guts.

I think it's official - the only people beating Simpson are the 5000 runners. Kipyegon closed in sub 60 in this one. That should scare Jenny. I think SImpson likely wins gold if things stay like this unless Dibba, Ayana or Kipyegon run the 1500. Any of those 3 are very dangerous but they've been in the 5000 so far.

Kipyegon only ran that 5000m in Eugene as a build-up and she is not moving up in distance yet. Maybe after Rio 2016. So Jenny Simpson will have some tough competition. That said, Faith's tactics so far are not the best. She tends to run on the outer lanes, and often surges several times to try to stay in contention. And by the last lap, she is expended and can hardly run a sub 65 seconds lap. She got the talent but she needs to work on her tactics to shoot for the medals. As a matter of fact, Sifan Hassan, Abeba Aregawi and Dawit Seyaum have a better chance at medaling than Faith.

The meet results are littered with subpar performances by athletes who have been winning. Mutaz struggles to 3rd in 2.33, Malachovskii 3rd in 62, 100h won in 12.8x, Kemboi flat on his face in the steeple after beating Birech in sub 8 2 weeks ago, Obergfoll 7th at 60m. The best part was that 1500.

Kampf ran faster in Rome, so she already had the qualifier.