Precious Roy wrote:
Let's not forget the hard kicking Hill and True. True ran 13:06 in Belgium and has the only 5k Diamond league win of any American. My money would still be on Farah. But, True and Hill can lay down a pretty serious kick in a tactical race. Just remains to be seen how they will deal with the heats and whether True will double.
Are you crazy? Like totally crazy? The 5000 has been down this year but True and Hill aren't kicking for gold. Barring a fall or food-poisoning, Farah seems like a LOCK for gold.
Hill for gold? What drugs are you on? Here is how hill has done in DL 5000s since last year
2015 Pre - 6th in a non DL race
2014 Zurich - 15th
2014 Glasgow - 14th
2014 Pre - 17th
Hell even look at last year's Payton Jordan, Hill was 7th. Making the final is a decent results for him.
As for True, he was just 3rd in Belgium in a race where he was killed by Gebremeskel and lost to a guy from Belgium. Yes he 'won' in NYC but the field there was awful. In terms of people who finished the race, True beat a grand total of ZERO people who will be running the 5000 at Worlds.
Here are the top 4 in the NYC race
1 Ben True USA 13:29.48
2 Nick Willis NZL 13:29.78 - not running 5000
3 Nguse Tesfaldet ERI 13:30.22 - doesn't even have standard. not running.
4 Thomas Longosiwa 13:30.26 - didn't make Kenyan team.
As for Huddle, I think I might have put her too high.
Huddle is in form and the 10,000 is weak as the big African studs aren't running it, except for one. Vivian Cheruiyot has been out a while but come on, she's a whole other class of runner from Huddle.
Head to head, Vivian leads Huddle 8 to 0 in their careers. Vivian ran 14:46 at the end of May in her first track race since 2012. Think about that. In her first race in 3 years, Vivian runs basically Huddle's lifetime PR. Her form can only have improved since then. Vivian has also run 8:39 for 3000 this year. Huddle's PB is 8:42.
If an Almaz Ayana or anyon of note from Ethiopia was in the 10k, we'd be saying Huddle would be lucky to get a medal. Yes, Flanagan and Goucher have done it in the past but only when EVERYTHING goes right.