Hi Casual Observski!! Is it still summer in Russia? Hope you are doing well.
I don't have to make any excuses for 17 year olds like Max or 18 year olds like Jakob.
To me it looked like he was a bit short of confidence and fitness. He seemed unable or unwilling to go with the other runners in the first lap, which for somebody who can front run 1:45 and ran a 47 second relay leg last year at 16, he should be able to if 100% in a strung out 50.5 opening lap.
However, he was actually closing or matching the rest over the last 100m, and of course caught Deng who must have been about 30m ahead of him for most of the race.
There is some truth to what the other poster said regarding letting Max just take his time in his career, but there was no harm in putting him in this race (or the GB championships next week), especially after the disappointment of missing out on the European junior championships.
It's a big difference being used to front running entire races to chasing everybody else all of a sudden.
I was honestly just happy to see him running. I feared he'd miss the rest of the season. I'm sure he's going to make the final in the GB championships and he'll run better and with more confidence there.