That first 800 of the women's 1500 was an abomination. And it was the two Americans leading the way. Take it out and race! Not going to out kick the Africans.(usually, I realize they almost did this time)
That first 800 of the women's 1500 was an abomination. And it was the two Americans leading the way. Take it out and race! Not going to out kick the Africans.(usually, I realize they almost did this time)
how do you decide who gets to be a rabbit? a rabbit is actually entered into the race they rabbit. if the field doesn't follow them and the rabbit has a massive lead, they can finish and win the race.
Have you ever seen a race before? How many times have you seen a diamond league rabbit win the race?
I'm not saying it ever happens I'm just saying that it can happen. Having a rabbit in the race would effectively make that person an olympian as they would be technically entered as a participant in the race. I have watched dozens of diamond league races and you will notice in some cases the rabbit does gap the field significantly and runs farther than they originally plan to in case some weird tactics play out. I have personally never seen a rabbit win a race but it's a technical possibility. It would be unfair to allow someone who did not make it through the qualifying rounds of the 1500 for example run in the finals.
Brainy smurf wrote:
That first 800 of the women's 1500 was an abomination. And it was the two Americans leading the way. Take it out and race! Not going to out kick the Africans.(usually, I realize they almost did this time)
So, you think they have a better chance of beating Dibaba and Kipyegon by running away from them early?
Brainy smurf wrote:
Have you ever seen a race before? How many times have you seen a diamond league rabbit win the race?
Doesn't matter. If the rabbit isn't a legitimate threat to win the race by being required to step off the track at a certain point, nobody would follow the rabbit. Why would you?
Well, a national team could conspire to use one of their runners, maybe the weakest one, as a sacrificial lamb out front to set the pace for the other two.
or this wrote:
Well, a national team could conspire to use one of their runners, maybe the weakest one, as a sacrificial lamb out front to set the pace for the other two.
Didn't Morocco do that for El Guerrouj a few times during championship races by having one of his teammates lead early?
Adil Kaouch was used as a pace setter a few times for El G. He is a convicted doper. Hmm, if an athlete's personal pacer uses EPO, what does that say about the athlete?
or this wrote:
Well, a national team could conspire to use one of their runners, maybe the weakest one, as a sacrificial lamb out front to set the pace for the other two.
See Jipcho/Keino, 1968 1,500:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_9AAy7yZTcJipcho was instructed by his federation to pace Keino.
lease wrote:
or this wrote:Well, a national team could conspire to use one of their runners, maybe the weakest one, as a sacrificial lamb out front to set the pace for the other two.
See Jipcho/Keino, 1968 1,500:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_9AAy7yZTcJipcho was instructed by his federation to pace Keino.
Here is another one with Sammy Kipketer as pacer in 2001.
It's about the race not the time.
Did you not watch the men's 800?
That was an awesome race, and the Americans ran really well. Too often when the pace is slow, the runner in first place feels some sort of weird pressure to pick it up, instead of just waiting comfortably for someone else to do it. Jenny and Shannon were patient, but alert, and it paid off. Laura Muir made the break, and she crashed and burned.
Brainy smurf wrote:
Have you ever seen a race before? How many times have you seen a diamond league rabbit win the race?
Tom Byers won a 1500 as a rabbit at Bislet over Steve Ovett. There have been other rabbits who won races.
Brainy smurf wrote:
Have you ever seen a race before? How many times have you seen a diamond league rabbit win the race?
Rarely but:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28_WpclPgTo- thanks wanted to post that for ages. Doesn't happen often, but if it happened in the Oly/WC to an unqualified runner, it wouldn't be quite right.
In an unrabbited race, each competitor has to weigh their own strategy options and respond to the decisions of others. As a result, the race can play out in a wide variety of ways. When you add a rabbit, you're basically forcing the field into a single prescribed strategy.
How is a race made more interesting by reducing the degrees of freedom?
I watched the men's 800 and I saw a rabbit for Rushida
Ayana rabbited the women's 5k. The field let her go, and she ended up winning
One thing they could do is to put the first non qualifier into the final and assign pacing duties to that person.
So you would have a 13 person final for the 1500 and the pace is dictated and communicated.
That person would be an official entrant and could win or place.
They could choose not to follow that person but he/she could get away to win the race. The first non-qualifier would be good enough to do that.