To be honest, my problem isn't that Kejelcha and Barega couldnt run faster than they have, I think they could and maybe will. You would be suprised how many people here think Farah couldn't run faster than 12:53 though. I didn't even mention how the race was paced in 2011 because it's pointless but a 53.6 in a PR race shows undeniably that Farah could run a lot faster than 12:53. That's 53.6 is close to what wins slowish tactical races and means he had a lot left in the tank to run that fast over the last lap. Bekele ran 57 when he set the record which shows what we know, he was close to maxed in that race and it was probably the best paced race of the modern era.
Mo was not breaking Bekele's record, no way so I don't see why he would setup a fast time trial race just to run a fast time and he was never in a sub 12:50 race which are like gold dust. Since 2000, there has only been 10 races that have had winning times under 12:50 and 5 of them were with Bekele attacking the clock without fear of losing because he was so much faster than everyone else.
4 of 5 of Bekele's sub 12:50's- No one else ran sub 12:50
Eliud Kipchoge won 2 of those 10 with a best of 12:46
Shaheen won 1 of those 10- He was racing El G so had to make the pace honest and only Shaheen went sub-12:50
Gebremeskel won 1 of those 10- A ridiculous 6 broke 12:50
Barega won 1 of those 10- Kejelcha knew he couldn't outkick him after their debacle earlier that season so tried to make it honest and fast. A ridiculous 3 broke 12:47
Even if you go back to Haile's era. Haile ran under 12:50 4 times. 3 of those were world records where he was out of sight and one was where he got towed to the World record by Komen who couldn't outkick Haile so had to front run
3 people ran under 12:50 in the 90's
7 people ran under 12:50 in the 00's
8 people ran under 12:50 in the 10's so far
This decade has the most of any under 12:47 with 4, it's 2 in both the 90's and 00's
See the pattern in the races, The majority of all the sub-12:50 races in History have been won by big margins by athletes who were a lot better than there competition and making World Record attempts or were lead out by a runner who couldn't outkick the competition.
If you can't break the World record now more than at any other point in the history of sub 12:50 races, you are a fool to lead out as there is a huge glut of guys who are running that fast and even faster and all you would be doing is setting them up to win. They have to be a lot better to run away from the competition. You frontrun like Kejelcha did last year and two guys are still stuck to him at the bell. You have a situation where if you can't break the World record, why try run away from someone who can't be run away from at anything slower than that?