Marta Freitas wins 2018 ISTAF Berlin mile in 4:22.45 over Kate Grace (4:23.23) as Alexa Efraimson PRs at 4:24.87

Was it Mackey that fell with 80 to go?

Efraimson looked great, really looking smooth and at her age, very impressive. It was cool to watch her duel with Klosterhofen, first time those two have raced. First of many to come I'm sure!

Berlin watcher wrote:

Was it Mackey that fell with 80 to go?

Looking at the results, it had to have been Sara Vaughn that fell, considering she finished so far behind the others, whereas Katie Mackey finished just a few seconds behind them.

I thought Klosterhalfen had given up on the 1500 (injury prone) to focus on the 5k.

Alis Landale wrote:

Awesome race. Nice to see clean women dueling. Extraordinarily high IQ performances across the board.

Hi racist!

notrump wrote:

I thought Klosterhalfen had given up on the 1500 (injury prone) to focus on the 5k.

This was a mile though, not a 1500.

notrump wrote:

I thought Klosterhalfen had given up on the 1500 (injury prone) to focus on the 5k.

No. She only focussed on 5k this season because she had to pause for about two months in April/May or so and with a shorter prep time the 5k seemed to offer a better chance at the EC. She still won the 1500 German CS in July in 4:06 leading from the beginning.

efergrh wrote:

Alis Landale wrote:

Awesome race. Nice to see clean women dueling. Extraordinarily high IQ performances across the board.

Hi racist!

Huh?

Klosterhalfen went into the lead in the 3rd lap because she wanted to attack the German mile record (4:21.59) and nobody else took the lead. This was not the smartest tactic and she clearly missed the record anyway and it might have cost her a place at the end although Freitas and Grace probably have a better kick even against top form Koko (In last year's shape (1:59 - 3:59) she could certainly have run sub 4:20.)

Jo72 wrote:

Klosterhalfen went into the lead in the 3rd lap because she wanted to attack the German mile record (4:21.59) and nobody else took the lead. This was not the smartest tactic and she clearly missed the record anyway and it might have cost her a place at the end although Freitas and Grace probably have a better kick even against top form Koko (In last year's shape (1:59 - 3:59) she could certainly have run sub 4:20.)

She ran 3:58 last year at this meet for the win. Letsrun posters either don’t actually know ppl’s PRs or make them up it’s so funny.

PrZ wrote:

Jo72 wrote:

Klosterhalfen went into the lead in the 3rd lap because she wanted to attack the German mile record (4:21.59) and nobody else took the lead. This was not the smartest tactic and she clearly missed the record anyway and it might have cost her a place at the end although Freitas and Grace probably have a better kick even against top form Koko (In last year's shape (1:59 - 3:59) she could certainly have run sub 4:20.)

She ran 3:58 last year at this meet for the win. Letsrun posters either don’t actually know ppl’s PRs or make them up it’s so funny.

3:58.92

I knew this very well and rounded up, smartass. To describe the general shape of a season 3:59 is actually more helpful than a PB 0.08 sec. faster. And certainly more precise than 3:58 which is almost a second faster than the actual time.

LetsRun.com wrote:

Freitas, the 2016 NCAA 1500 for Mississippi St, was happy to win after finishing a disappointing sixth at Europeans.

"I am happy with my record. The European Championships did not go that well for me so it is great to come back and win here today. I just graduated from college and will go back to the US and plan the next steps," said Marta Pen Freitas.

Efraimson's PB coming in for the full mile was 4:27.39. However, her time today equates to a 4:05.21 1500 , slower than her 4:03.39 pb which dates to 2015.

1 Pen Freitas , Marta POR 4:22.45

2 Grace , Kate USA 4:23.23

3 Klosterhalfen , Konstanze GER 4:24.27

4 Efraimson , Alexa USA 4:24.82

5 McColgan , Eilish GBR 4:25.07

6 Twell , Stephanie GBR 4:26.05

7 Mageean , Ciara IRL 4:26.75

8 Plis , Renata POL 4:28.36

9 Mackey , Katie USA 4:29.81

10 Vaughn , Sara USA 4:40.42

Barysevich , Darya BLR DNF

For anyone looking for a video of the race:

It was Mackey who fell. I could not tell if she was tripped or merely became entangled in her own legs.

Irish Miler 007 wrote:

Efraimson looked great, really looking smooth and at her age, very impressive. It was cool to watch her duel with Klosterhofen, first time those two have raced. First of many to come I'm sure!

Video finally made it to YouTube. Alexa looked sharp for 3 and a half laps, then the fast pace took a toll on her. It looks to me that she is on the brink of making the difficult transition from high school phenom to the top rank of the US professionals. Not many do that.

notrump wrote:

Alexa looked sharp for 3 and a half laps, then the fast pace took a toll on her.

This describes almost every Efraimson race. Even when she ran her PR at Pre in 2015, she was with the lead pack and closing on the leaders coming off the final turn. Then they took off and she couldn't go with them. They ended up running away from her.

But none of this matters; Efraimson is young enough that she still has plenty of time to develop. Look at Houlihan. Until this year, they had the exact same 1500 PRs. Houlihan's fastest 1500 last year was a second and a half slower than Efraimson's. And in this very race last year, Houlihan got whupped. She finished 8th, 7+ seconds behind Klosterhalften, ( and 2 places behind Nicole Sifuentes!).

We all know how that turned out.

I think both Klosterhalfen and Efraimson could have run at least a second or two faster in a faster race where someone else held up the pace in the 3rd lap, like London. Efraimson was smarter as she let Klosterhalfen do most of the work but apparently passed too early in the last lap. Klosterhalfen is clearly behind last year's shape because of her injury in spring although that mile time is better than her 4:06 (leading from the gun) at the German CS in July, so she is roughly in the middle between her 2016 (4:07 15:17) and 2017 (3:58.92 14:51) times.

Interesting pointer that Houlihan ran at ISTAF last year; as a European I have to admit that I did not become aware of her before the early 2018 indoor races.

Jo72 wrote:

as a European I have to admit that I did not become aware of Houlihan before the early 2018 indoor races.

And why should you have? Until this year's Pre, Houlihan wasn't Houlihan; she was just another American stuck at 4:03. She made the 5000 finals in Rio and London, but finished 11th and 13th. Her 8th at ISTAF was her best international finish last year.

Agreed, she has done a great job in dealing with the pressure of all the critics and highly competitive nature of the American middle distance environment. If you watch Alexa's high school races, she was a great finisher. It's a lot tougher when you are running a fast pace and pushing from 600m out (which most world class 1500m runners do). I think she makes the US team next year, and if she does, will make the finals.