Manzano is Done

Bekele wrote:

He seems to have lost the strength, stamina, speed he once had and needed to compete as a top 1500M runner - where does he go from here...?

Back on the juice of course

Leo is 30. His best stuff may be behind him. However, he is such an unknown quantity that you can never be sure what he is going to do. He looked to be done in 2011 with string of injuries, but came back to win silver. In 2013 he could not get into the finals at worlds, but comes back in 2014 and runs 3:30. He will run an embarrassingly dismal race and then a few weeks later unleash a massive kick. He is just so up and down that it is impossible to know whether he is declining or just going through another episode of bad races.

30? Farah fanboys believe he, and in years to come, Rupp, can still improve after age 30. Slow-steady progress: sauce refinements.

He'll be done when we can find three Americans that can be him at the same USATF race.

And that has never happened. At least not since before 2006.

He aint done! he is just not having a good season, of course, that happens when you are a clean athlete. You have only a few shots! Unlike Rupp and Farah are always all doped up! They have no rest and still can fly!

He definitely had a rough season. I wouldn't say he is done though. He did make the WC final. How many times has he done that?

he is not done. This season he made the U.S. team as always and he said that he had some of his best workouts ever, which means that it is just a matter of time before he puts that together in a race. When you're having your best workouts, you are not close to done.

All good replies, thanks. He might not be, but i just get the sense that he is having a (noticeable) much harder time (more effort) keeping up these days, despite all the great training he has done to prepare for his 2015 outdoor season and Championships. He does not look as relaxed or fluent in his running and he just seemed to look faster last year, if you know what i mean.

Would he have any chance at moving up in distance given his age - could he be a decent, competitive 5000M runner for USA or does he hang on one more year as a 1500M guy going into Rio?

Leo hasn't shown much promise over the longer distances so far (which always surprised me given his size). He did run some decent 800s this year though, and Nick Willis has shown us that you can be a quality miler into your 30s

Except for making the US team and making the World Championship finals, Leo has been consistently bad this year. Usually he has some good performances mixed with bad but this year nada. It seems like he still has tactical smarts but not the wheels anymore. 30 is old for a miler, Nick Willis nothwithstanding.

Bekele wrote:

All good replies, thanks. He might not be, but i just get the sense that he is having a (noticeable) much harder time (more effort) keeping up these days, despite all the great training he has done to prepare for his 2015 outdoor season and Championships. He does not look as relaxed or fluent in his running and he just seemed to look faster last year, if you know what i mean.

Would he have any chance at moving up in distance given his age - could he be a decent, competitive 5000M runner for USA or does he hang on one more year as a 1500M guy going into Rio?

You must not follow his career then.

He always has a number of bad races every season with a few real good ones.

And he has never looked relaxed or fluent even in his good races.

Fluent? He seems very fluent in English and Spanish.

Les wrote:

Except for making the US team and making the World Championship finals, Leo has been consistently bad this year....

Yea, except for those minor details.