I think Mu deserves a spot. First American under 1:55 plus all the plot twists and turns. She's running/not running, which event, she's done/she's back! A lot of fuel for speculation and discussion here.
If it ends up in a decade that Niels is Jakob but with way better speed, putting Niels at #2 will look amazingly prescient.
Yes but “Jakob but with way better speed” is a creature of fiction that has not existed yet to our knowledge. Who in the history of the sport would come closest to that? I don’t know who that is.
Exactly - that's why he's #2.
The investing analogy works well. We'd never had a trillion dollar company until apple in 2018. It's now worth $3 trillion.
Yes but “Jakob but with way better speed” is a creature of fiction that has not existed yet to our knowledge. Who in the history of the sport would come closest to that? I don’t know who that is.
Exactly - that's why he's #2.
The investing analogy works well. We'd never had a trillion dollar company until apple in 2018. It's now worth $3 trillion.
No doubt Laros has shown tremendous potential and range. Laros has run 1:44.78 and 13:23.
Will Sumner is going to be 20 next month and he ran 1:44.26 this year as you know. If he ran even 14:00, people would be crowning him the next great US miler after Nuguse. Of course Sumner has run 45.90 and I don’t know what Laros can run? Maybe 47xx?
Laros at 2? What kind of joke is this? No bias from him listening to the pod/getting to know the parents? Noah Lyles and Jakob at 5, 6, but Laros at 2? The kid is wicked talented, and sure maybe 2-3 years he gives Jakob/Nuguse/Kerr a scare, but he has shown no indication that he is necessarily Jakob 2.0. Let’s remember Jakob was 4th in the 1500m and 5th in the 5000m as a 18 y.o. at WCs. He was the second ranked 1500m runner in the world according to world rankings. Laros is currently 15th. Reynolds Cheruyiout is once again overlooked even though he had a higher finish at WCs, ranked 6th in the world and is only 8 months older. Maybe Laros belongs as the 7th or 6th “storyline”(whatever that means), and I say this as a track fan that watched every DL and enjoyed watching him race. It just isn’t fair to him to pile on that type of pressure.
Laros at 2? What kind of joke is this? No bias from him listening to the pod/getting to know the parents? Noah Lyles and Jakob at 5, 6, but Laros at 2? The kid is wicked talented, and sure maybe 2-3 years he gives Jakob/Nuguse/Kerr a scare, but he has shown no indication that he is necessarily Jakob 2.0. Let’s remember Jakob was 4th in the 1500m and 5th in the 5000m as a 18 y.o. at WCs. He was the second ranked 1500m runner in the world according to world rankings. Laros is currently 15th. Reynolds Cheruyiout is once again overlooked even though he had a higher finish at WCs, ranked 6th in the world and is only 8 months older. Maybe Laros belongs as the 7th or 6th “storyline”(whatever that means), and I say this as a track fan that watched every DL and enjoyed watching him race. It just isn’t fair to him to pile on that type of pressure.
reposted from another thread
Jakob had his 19th birthday during the Doha WC. So comparing Jakob, Reynold C, and Laros at the 'same age' should be Laros early next season when he's had another winter of training and development behind him. 8 months is a long time when it means the older athlete has had an extra year of racing at the top level.
There is nothing wrong with being biased about middle- distance running on this board. Pretty sure there were more threads about Laros here than Lyles. If you looked at the 'trending' track stories of 2023 then Laros might be number 1 here. And there is nothing wrong with being biased about a fantastically new talented European junior. What Laros is showing is that Jakob was not a 'fluke' and we could even be seeing a wave of super talent coming through.
Laros at 2? What kind of joke is this? No bias from him listening to the pod/getting to know the parents? Noah Lyles and Jakob at 5, 6, but Laros at 2? The kid is wicked talented, and sure maybe 2-3 years he gives Jakob/Nuguse/Kerr a scare, but he has shown no indication that he is necessarily Jakob 2.0. Let’s remember Jakob was 4th in the 1500m and 5th in the 5000m as a 18 y.o. at WCs. He was the second ranked 1500m runner in the world according to world rankings. Laros is currently 15th. Reynolds Cheruyiout is once again overlooked even though he had a higher finish at WCs, ranked 6th in the world and is only 8 months older. Maybe Laros belongs as the 7th or 6th “storyline”(whatever that means), and I say this as a track fan that watched every DL and enjoyed watching him race. It just isn’t fair to him to pile on that type of pressure.
reposted from another thread
Jakob had his 19th birthday during the Doha WC. So comparing Jakob, Reynold C, and Laros at the 'same age' should be Laros early next season when he's had another winter of training and development behind him. 8 months is a long time when it means the older athlete has had an extra year of racing at the top level.
There is nothing wrong with being biased about middle- distance running on this board. Pretty sure there were more threads about Laros here than Lyles. If you looked at the 'trending' track stories of 2023 then Laros might be number 1 here. And there is nothing wrong with being biased about a fantastically new talented European junior. What Laros is showing is that Jakob was not a 'fluke' and we could even be seeing a wave of super talent coming through.
There is nothing wrong with being biased about a “fantastically talented European (read white) junior.” Coevett tries to reassure himself that there is nothing wrong with himself.
The list is fine and I agree with Kipyegon as number 1 - she took down three meaningful WRs, two in the space of a week.
If Jakob had broken a championship distance record, I'd have listed him higher but off-distance records don't do much for me - I will bet good money that there isn't a single 2 mile race in Europe next year.
But the big omission from the list is Josh Kerr. I know why, he skipped the DL final so leaving him off is a punishment beating. But as a storyline, his is one of the best of the year. The guy who was 5th in the world last year, and finished 9th behind Jakob in Oslo comes back six weeks later to out-kick him and take the biggest prize of the year. And it's another Brit kicking down the guy who appears to dominate the event. Go across all the distance medallists from Eugene: were any a bigger surprise than Kerr? It was the race LRC talked about all year on nearly every pod, and it produced the the most exciting result. Leaving Kerr off the list just because he didn't run a paced mile in Eugene is a bit petty.
Another big miss was Ryan Crouser. In terms of storyline, Crouser winning the world championship with two blood clots in his leg is as good as it gets. In terms of future significance, his introduction of the Crouser Slide to rewrite the record books has the potential to be this generation’s Fosbury Flop.
One of the story-lines isn't people-specific, but event-specific: Men's 5,000m.
In 2023, there were more sub-13:00 clockings in the men's 5,000m (18) than any year since 2010 (19). This is because everyone was running their best at nearly every meet. Oslo was particularly fast, with a closing time of 3:54 and Kejelcha and Kiplimo making the all-time list.
One of the story-lines isn't people-specific, but event-specific: Men's 5,000m.
In 2023, there were more sub-13:00 clockings in the men's 5,000m (18) than any year since 2010 (19). This is because everyone was running their best at nearly every meet. Oslo was particularly fast, with a closing time of 3:54 and Kejelcha and Kiplimo making the all-time list.
Agree with this. Especially as none of those guys running 12:40s could bring it when it mattered most. The big "what if" question of the year is also in that event: what if Kiplimo had made it to Budapest? I don't think Jakob wins, but sadly, we're left guessing
One of the story-lines isn't people-specific, but event-specific: Men's 5,000m.
In 2023, there were more sub-13:00 clockings in the men's 5,000m (18) than any year since 2010 (19). This is because everyone was running their best at nearly every meet. Oslo was particularly fast, with a closing time of 3:54 and Kejelcha and Kiplimo making the all-time list.
Agree with this. Especially as none of those guys running 12:40s could bring it when it mattered most. The big "what if" question of the year is also in that event: what if Kiplimo had made it to Budapest? I don't think Jakob wins, but sadly, we're left guessing
Does Cheptegei win the 10 if Kiplimo is there and healthy?
I think Kipyegon’s star is shining a little less brightly after her 5000m record was broken so soon after she set it.
I don't see how. Did anyone actually believe 14:05 was going to stand up as a long time record? Kipyegon was shocked to break the record because she wasn't even trying for it. During the presser the prior day she emphasized she was testing the waters at 5000, toward decision making for Budapest and Paris.
The 5000 was a comparatively soft record and still has room to dip further. Missed opportunity by Tsegay to become known as the first sub-14. But perhaps she'll get there first anyway.
Very bad, biased, partly US list. No time to discuss.
Though what is a storyline? Because the list by biggest season's achievements is quite different from and including No. 2 - and you will see it in the more pro WA contest.
I think Kipyegon’s star is shining a little less brightly after her 5000m record was broken so soon after she set it.
I don't see how. Did anyone actually believe 14:05 was going to stand up as a long time record? Kipyegon was shocked to break the record because she wasn't even trying for it. During the presser the prior day she emphasized she was testing the waters at 5000, toward decision making for Budapest and Paris.
The 5000 was a comparatively soft record and still has room to dip further. Missed opportunity by Tsegay to become known as the first sub-14. But perhaps she'll get there first anyway.
Kipyegon was lying if she said she wasn’t trying for the 5000m record. Please tell me you are not this gullible?
Kipyegon was lying if she said she wasn’t trying for the 5000m record. Please tell me you are not this gullible?
She ran behind Gidey only and had a looooot to finish ridiculously fast in her 3rd? race ever, with the WR only smashed this way. Ofc she could have anticipated this as the time wasn't super fast.
She will take down 14:00 when properly paced - she hasn't been the super versatile Tsegay, who is accustomed to race solo even bigger distances as nearly always indoors, until this year.
I don't see how. Did anyone actually believe 14:05 was going to stand up as a long time record? Kipyegon was shocked to break the record because she wasn't even trying for it. During the presser the prior day she emphasized she was testing the waters at 5000, toward decision making for Budapest and Paris.
The 5000 was a comparatively soft record and still has room to dip further. Missed opportunity by Tsegay to become known as the first sub-14. But perhaps she'll get there first anyway.
Kipyegon was lying if she said she wasn’t trying for the 5000m record. Please tell me you are not this gullible?
She wasn't. Her tactic was to sit and kick on Gidey, and Gidey was the one who decided to run near WR pace. I don't think Tsegay breaking the record takes anything away from Kipyegon, because we all know that Faith would've done the same thing she did to Gidey had she been in that race. At any rate, I'm expecting multiple women under 14 next year.
We can argue about the rest of the rankings, but Kipyegon is obviously the right call for #1 on this list.
I NEVER stated that Kipyegon wasn’t the right choice, but I made a point which is obvious to the intelligent: for example, if Jakob’s 7:54 or 4:43 were broken this year, it would take something away from his status. Maybe not a lot, but something, and if some of you cannot see that it is due to your level of intelligence.