Ben Blankeship appreciation thread. Thanks for not being a pansy and leading the race.

maybe his strategy was to sit and kick too and he executed perfectly. he had a kick comparable to leo's one. if it wasn't for robby coming from behind he would be in.

cut the guy some slack, all of you. he is having a great year and just need to keep it rolling. good things will come.

Ben lost a worlds spot because that surge to hold of Leo down the back stretch and he kept turning around down the last 100 meters. Rowland must want to kill him. He was in perfect position and blew it. DON'T TURN AROUND. Andrews didn't turn around and made the team.

coach d wrote:

This is why you don't front run a 1500.

El G did it all the time. J.Simpson does it all the time. M.Slaney did it all the time. Webb's best races were leading them.

yu no me wrote:

rojo wrote:

He almost beat the Olympic silver medallist.

What does him being an Olympic silver medalist have to do with your point?

Yu no me- You were led to water. Up to you to drink.

bob schul junkie wrote:

He should of went out and ran a few 58's and he might of had a chance

He should HAVE GONE out and RUN a few 58s, and he might HAVE had a chance.

So you were there with your hard work and positive outlook?

xcr wrote:

He is 13 on the world list thus far. May be a bit lower when you add in mile conversions. Does that mean he has a chance if they fill out the field with the top 36?

USATF is saying they won't select athletes without standard, even if the IAAF would use them to fill fields.

Ben has the standard. But if I'm understanding what Letsrun posted regarding USATFs guidelines, they will only take 3, so Andrews and Leo are still in the driver's seat if they can run fast enough before August 9.

First statement since the race. A hangover that will last 365 days. Ouch.

Ran like a little CAT, led a slow race and got out kicked by a faster dude. Balls out from the gun he makes the team.

coach d wrote:

Blankenship came in with a 3:35 in Shanghai, so it IS possible that 3:38 after heats was the best he could do. If that wasn't the best he could do, he should be assigned the task of watching all known videos of Lagat.

Ben obviously could have run faster than that in Shanghai, 1-2 seconds faster in a better paced race and not being boxed in the last 100m.

thread should end right there.

YEAH BUDDY wrote:

Yeah real ballsy the way he led that 2:03...

Don't give me the pedigree story--the others were NCAA champions. The difference was .03. If you try to start/stop your stop watch as fast as you can, you'll probably get about .09-.10. There was no inherent difference but chance and positioning differentiating them--or even Blankenship breaking the wind for the others for a couple laps.

I wish Ben was on the team. I think Robby is not up to the challenge.

Ben did not run the smartest race. I don't laud him for leading. Since when is running in the pack acting like a turd. That's absurd. The idea is to get to worlds. He could has taken over in the middle of the race if he wanted an "honest pace".

My hope is that Andrews does not get the standard and Blankeship runs at worlds.

did anyone notice that blankenship leaned way too late? he leaned about 1-1.5m after the line (approx where the tape was).

running about 13sec/100m pace, how much will the lean help you?

did some math...

if he was running 13.0 sec/100m that's 7.69 m/s

if a lean is worth about 15cm (just a guess by me, approx 6 inches) then the lean saves you 0.0195 seconds. pretty sure he was 0.02 seconds back. so if he couldve leaned by about 6 inches (or even dove) he would have likely made the team.

for a sprinter running 9.5 sec/100m, a 6" lean would help by 0.014s (FYI)

i guessed 9.5 because at the finish they are running faster than their actual average speed. gatlin might be running more like 9.0 sec/100m but whatever. 13 sec/100m seemed logical for blankenship's pace at the finish, if not faster.

Not suprised by wannabee wrote:

He's a will leer wanna be complete with flopping at USAs. These guys are all alike. When it comes to real runners in real races they never show up big.

He needs to shave that crap, get a haircut and grow up. It cost him today

I agree completely.

Except if that had been leer his failure would've been because of someone else. like Lagat.

Never have I been so happy to see leer fail.

Horst Girth wrote:

I wish Ben was on the team. I think Robby is not up to the challenge.

Ben did not run the smartest race. I don't laud him for leading. Since when is running in the pack acting like a turd. That's absurd. The idea is to get to worlds. He could has taken over in the middle of the race if he wanted an "honest pace".

My hope is that Andrews does not get the standard and Blankeship runs at worlds.

Why do you say this? Because of how he ran a relay split? How he raced indoors?

If Andrews and Blankenship line up in a Diamond League race this summer, I will give the nod to Blankenship.

In the World Champs, give me Andrews. More speed, better timing of his kick, gets the job done through rounds.

DONT-TURN-AROUND wrote:

Ben lost a worlds spot because that surge to hold of Leo down the back stretch and he kept turning around down the last 100 meters. Rowland must want to kill him. He was in perfect position and blew it. DON'T TURN AROUND. Andrews didn't turn around and made the team.