Shelby Houlihan blocked Laura Muir after coming around the final bend.

Laura had a chance to win that but didn't, 3:59 in May isn't bad.

I was in an Edinburgh supermarket the other week and who should be there but Laura Muir.

I was watching her as she approached the check out with her trolley when from nowhere another customer shot in front of her blocking Laura's way to the check out. The person with the offending trolley looked a bit like Shelby!

People don't wipe after #2 in Barbarian Europe.

'Call Me Maybe' has over one billion downloads on YouTube.

One billion.

Scorpion_runner wrote:

Laura was going to run straight to the victory, but Shelby came off the bend and closed the little gap that Laura was going to use. Laura was forced to go around and follow Shelby. As they were both going to the finish, Laura had a lot more speed in the tank.

Great move by Shelby. There was no contact and it was legal, but Laura would have won the race had Shelby not blocked the space.

100 % agree. Fantastic tactical racing from Houlihan, she used her speed right when she needed it most to get the best position. Muir, on the other hand, was sleeping and lost a race in which she seemed to have the strongest final kick because of bad tactics.

Here is a video of the race (situation at 2:48, audio is late, so don't worry about the bell) :

Watching the video, a couple of observations -

1) OP is incorrect. There was no "blocking" of Laura Muir

2) Muir was ahead of Houlihan from 400-300-200m to go, she just is not tactically savvy at this point, nor sharp in her speed, as she could not match Houlihan's top speed

3) Muir was unable to respond. If you watch with 250m to go, Houlihan is being blocked by Muir and she weaves around trying to get by her and Houlihans opt to run wide into Lane 2-3

I think Muir is the opposite of a guy like Centrowitz, who in his prime as a tactical genius. We've now seen on two hands the tactical mistakes Muir makes in races. The good news is when she is on, there are on 3-5 girls that can beat her.

Laura was not going to run to victory. Shelby slingshotted around the bend and took over. Wasn’t much Laura could do to respond or Shelby. She was passed pretty convincingly.

Amerikano wrote:

Laura was not going to run to victory. Shelby slingshotted around the bend and took over. Wasn’t much Laura could do to respond or Shelby. She was passed pretty convincingly.

Sling shot engaged!

Watching the video there was plenty of space for Laura to move! There was no block. I notice her head drops around 50m to the finish and then her form goes to crap, while Shelby kept her form together and powered through.

Good thing Jenny is an American and she doesn't dope, because that's an insanely low bf % she's got. Ridiculous.

lkjsk wrote:

Watching the video, a couple of observations -

1) OP is incorrect. There was no "blocking" of Laura Muir

2) Muir was ahead of Houlihan from 400-300-200m to go, she just is not tactically savvy at this point, nor sharp in her speed, as she could not match Houlihan's top speed

3) Muir was unable to respond. If you watch with 250m to go, Houlihan is being blocked by Muir and she weaves around trying to get by her and Houlihans opt to run wide into Lane 2-3

I think Muir is the opposite of a guy like Centrowitz, who in his prime as a tactical genius. We've now seen on two hands the tactical mistakes Muir makes in races. The good news is when she is on, there are on 3-5 girls that can beat her.

Off the bend, there is a small space that Laura was going to shoot down. Shelby, as she was passing her, took away that small space, instead of just staying more outside. That prevents laura from kicking straight down, and has no choice but to follow shelby around simpson.

We agree to disagree.

Scorpion_runner wrote:

Laura was going to run straight to the victory, but Shelby came off the bend and closed the little gap that Laura was going to use. Laura was forced to go around and follow Shelby. As they were both going to the finish, Laura had a lot more speed in the tank.

What fantasy world do you live in?

Laura even hesitates a little, or pulls off her speed, because that small space is caught off. At that point, she settles for second.

I'm not sure Shelby was even aware, or maybe she was. But it was a great move to just seal that small gap and not allow a last ditched kick by laura.

lkjsk wrote:

Watching the video, a couple of observations -

1) OP is incorrect. There was no "blocking" of Laura Muir

2) Muir was ahead of Houlihan from 400-300-200m to go, she just is not tactically savvy at this point, nor sharp in her speed, as she could not match Houlihan's top speed

3) Muir was unable to respond. If you watch with 250m to go, Houlihan is being blocked by Muir and she weaves around trying to get by her and Houlihans opt to run wide into Lane 2-3

I think Muir is the opposite of a guy like Centrowitz, who in his prime as a tactical genius. We've now seen on two hands the tactical mistakes Muir makes in races. The good news is when she is on, there are on 3-5 girls that can beat her.

I agree with this interpretation and will add 2 things:

1) Houlihan has proven to be a great tactician over the last couple years. This has been on display in several US championships

2) Houlihan has outstanding power, turnover and acceleration that nobody was able to match

Get outta here- I've never seen so much space for someone to make a move in a 1500m. She had plenty of space to move. She drops her head with 50m to go and her form goes to s*** when she realizes she doesn't have the extra gear to go.

BMart is going to hurt herself with that arm flailing at the finish.

You are confused. In no situation would it be reasonable for Shelby to go wider than she needs to in the process of passing. Do you really expect her to go extra wide just in case one of the people she’s passing also wants to pass someone? When you say “blocked” here, you really just mean that she passed her. There was no blocking, deliberate or otherwise. If Laura really had more in the tank than Shelby-which I don’t think that she did-then she lost because she mistimed her move, not because she was “blocked”.

No block, Houlihan stays in her lane from the bend to the finish and even swings to the outer half of her lane when passing Afdi or whoever was in second at that time. Muir uses that gap to chase, and switches to the inner lane of where Muir is running who is now in the outer half of her lane