Let's talk Jack Sailsbury slowing down to outkick Hunter during the DMR

as far as i know, i don't think jack purposely slowed down. but when someone is catching you and you know it (think: the live stream in the stadium, his coach yelling, etc.) it can be quite worrying and give you nerves. then you think how much easier it would be to just loosen up. and of course then when he realized how much was at stake, he turned the wheels on, but just a little too late.

My guess is that the original strategy was for LaSalle and Loudon to get the baton close together, and Salisbury would sit-and-kick on Hunter. Loudon threw a wrench into this when the first leg dropped the baton. By easing up, Salisbury was replicating the original strategy.

Unlikely any strategy would have succeeded better. Hunter has an 11-second advantage in PRs and the time gap was only 8 seconds.

He runs just .002 faster and people will say it was a brilliant move on Sailsbury's part.

He clearly knew what he was doing, as he was looking back repeatedly to Hunter, as if to gauge exactly when to time his final kick. If he had pushed consistently to the line he wouldn't have had a read on Hunter's position. Hindsight is 20/20

Salisbury has had the milesplit kick of the week like three times. He probably has the best kick of any high schooler today (other than Hunter, but assuming the same fitness, it isn't close). I bet he knew Hunter would catch him at 150 to go if he went all out, so by saving a bit of energy, he could use his incredible kick against Hunter when Hunter would be exhausted from chasing him down.

Also, he's probably very proud of his kick, and maybe wanted to test it against Hunter. I'm sure him kicking against Hunter was something he's daydreamed about for a year now. He was .002 away from having that dream be a reality.

Didn't he go out in something like 57? I think he tried to run away but could see that he was going to get caught so conserved to try to leave it for who had the better wheels. Seems like that was the best strategy given his tools and the circumstances.

but... wrote:He was .002 away from having that dream be a reality.

Ahhh, the dream of LetsRunners, unrealized again.

i'm not convinced he wasn't just dying and then once hunter caught him instincts kicked in and he was able to find another gear for the last 100-150

seems incredibly stupid to slow down with 300m left to let someone catch you so you can pull away from them

if he wanted to let hunter catch him and then sit on hunter, why go out in 57 then slow down with 300 left?

twk317 wrote:

i'm not convinced he wasn't just dying and then once hunter caught him instincts kicked in and he was able to find another gear for the last 100-150

seems incredibly stupid to slow down with 300m left to let someone catch you so you can pull away from them

if he wanted to let hunter catch him and then sit on hunter, why go out in 57 then slow down with 300 left?

Watching the race, I thought it was a brilliant strategy. Can you imagine being Drew Hunter, going out in 56 seconds for your first quarter with an 8 second gap to cover and making NO progress towards that gap? It must has been at least a little intimidating. I think Salisbury was trying to get Hunter to use up as much energy as possible in bridging the gap. Salisbury's second 400 was something like 67 (split 2:04? Correct me if I'm off base), which to me isn't just getting scared and hitting the breaks, it's intentionally playing into a race plan against a kid that was almost certainly going to run you down anyway.

Plus, baiting Hunter into starting his kick early? Salisbury spent almost as much time between 1200-1400 looking backwards has he did forwards. I don't think he was trying to keep an eye on Hunter, I think he was trying to goad Hunter into launching into something he couldn't sustain to the finish. It almost worked, too.

Everyone, especially on Letsrun, talks about race tactics like that word means "run slow and kick hard", but there are a lot of ways to use strategy to your advantage. Especially in a relay. I was super pumped to watch such a good race and what I thought was, from a tactics standpoint, an almost flawless execution of the only strategy that had a chance of beating Hunter.

Yeah even though his strategy only BARELY failed, I thought it was quite brilliant...especially how he really challenged Hunter in the last 100. He really does have a monster kick though, that was hugely impressive given that indoors he ran 4:08 vs. Hunter's 3:57. I'd love to see a rematch at NON, but I can imagine that Loudoun Valley wouldn't wanna drop the baton again so maybe it wouldn't be the same last 200m duel.

He's a high school kid. His strategy wasn't as elaborate as you've penned here, sorry bud. He got caught and had a last resort thought....that didn't work. Credit goes to hunter for being aggressive. If hunter didn't go out in 56 and got progressively faster, he would have won by a lot more as he'd be speeding up while the other guy slowing down dramatically

He might have been better off letting Hunter pass him some and make him think that he had the race won and Hunter maybe would have relaxed some and then Salisbury could have passed him back again for the win.

i agree with this approach.then it would have been an inertia game, and salsbury steak would have the drop on him and Hunter wouldn't have had enough time to get up to speed

Old Coaching Strategy wrote:

He might have been better off letting Hunter pass him some and make him think that he had the race won and Hunter maybe would have relaxed some and then Salisbury could have passed him back again for the win.

That is called "The Slingshot"; it is dicey, but can be effective. Bekele really used this well against Mo in the Great North Half. And of course Kiprop's antics in the Elmsley Carr Mile last summer. I'm sure I've seen it in a relay just can't recall a specific one right now.

spratiolio wrote:

i agree with this approach.

then it would have been an inertia game, and salsbury steak would have the drop on him and Hunter wouldn't have had enough time to get up to speed

Old Coaching Strategy wrote:

He might have been better off letting Hunter pass him some and make him think that he had the race won and Hunter maybe would have relaxed some and then Salisbury could have passed him back again for the win.

Colton Bogucki, the leadoff runner for Loudoun Valley, did NOT drop the baton -- he tripped over the runner slightly ahead of him and to his right who had tumbled first. THAT runner, from Eastern HS, dropped his baton, which went flying to the outside lane. Bogucki twisted his body to the left but couldn't avoid getting tripped up. He went down hard with his baton still in his hand, picked himself up quickly, and did a damn good job of making the best of a bad situation.

If you watch the race video, you'll see both runners going down just after the :50 mark, from a high camera angle. Then the camera shifts to a frontal shot from further up the backstretch. This blocks the view of Bogucki righting himself, but look at the timing of his wipeout-then-pickup and you'll see he was impressively swift in his rebound from a pretty nasty spill. The Eastern runner rights himself, bolts to his right, to the wall, to retrieve HIS dropped baton, and he resumes his race in dead last, behind Bogucki.

The guy who wrote the article on the race for MileStat/MileSplit, Nolan Jez, writes that Bogucki fell twice! Absurd fantasy writing! And the LetsRun.com writeup also says that Bogucki dropped the baton! Have they ever heard of video replay?

Sailsbury steaked everything on hoofing his hind quarters but got roasted.

What's you're beef, Kobe? He would have filleted him anyway.

Hhaha wrote:

Did this move make sense? I have no idea how it would.

Did Sailsbury really need someone right next to him to turn on the wheels? I feel like they could have won that way.

Could someone explain?

Perhaps Jack preserved a little for a kick, but he was already slowing down. He knew he didn't have much left in the tank and gambled on a footrace to the finish line and it almost worked. If he continued to pushed, he probably would have rigged and Drew would have caught him anyway. The best team won.

We've got a dozen posters on this baby and not one of you commented on all the looking back by Salisbury? No wonder Trump and Clinton are the leading candidates for the Presidency!

Do you not know that each of those looks back causes a loss in momentum and time? It also gives hope to the runner(s) behind!

It's unreal that you guys missed this!