He should graciously withdraw his name from Olympic consideration and state that "Kenya needs new champions to carry the legacy forward." or something like that. Then, get a seven figure appearance fee to run New York City while heavily hinting at retirement. Nike could run a huge campaign and commemorative product drop around it being the end of an era, "Long Live the King!", and all that.
The decision is easier if Evans Chebet doesn’t win Boston and a Kenyan doesn’t win in London. But if Mateiko/Kamworor run 2:03 or faster in London, or Chebet wins it’s pretty dicey. Kipruto punched his ticket in my eyes.
He shouldn't be, but he probably will out of respect for his fabulous career and the way he's represented Kenya. I think most realize that he's not going to win the Olympic marathon, or Boston or New York for that matter. If Kiptum were still alive, it would be a much more difficult choice.
Kipchoge screwed up. When he realized that today wasn't going to be his day, instead of falling back he should have dropped out and claimed to have gotten a mild injury, or that he was running while having the flu, or some other excuse.
It's a lot easier for the Kenyan Olympic committee to pick a 2 time Olympic gold medalist who had the bad luck to be sick or slightly injured, rather than pick an old man who finished several minutes behind the winner in his most recent marathon.
But Kipchoge is not Bekele and does not drop off because he is having a bad marathon like Bekele.
He shouldn’t and if he doesn’t the IOC Paris will create a new rule saying the most recent olympic champion gets an automatic berth and doesn’t count towards a country’s team. He won’t embarrass himself as much as he would in another major though because there would only be a few other Kenyans/ethiopians/ugandans
I kind of wish Olympics did an auto berth for the previous champ in a lot of other events as well. 1 more guy in heats of a 1500 or 800 isn't going to break the event just like how one more guy in a marathon doesn't change much.
Kipchoge screwed up. When he realized that today wasn't going to be his day, instead of falling back he should have dropped out and claimed to have gotten a mild injury, or that he was running while having the flu, or some other excuse.
It's a lot easier for the Kenyan Olympic committee to pick a 2 time Olympic gold medalist who had the bad luck to be sick or slightly injured, rather than pick an old man who finished several minutes behind the winner in his most recent marathon.
But Kipchoge is not Bekele and does not drop off because he is having a bad marathon like Bekele.
If Kipchoge's goal was to make another Olympic team, running at 2:06:50 does NOT help his case.
It's all about coming up with the right strategy to accomplish a goal. Dropping out halfway through the race and then coming up with an excuse that seems valid would make it much more likely for him to get picked for the Olympic team.
The decision is easier if Evans Chebet doesn’t win Boston and a Kenyan doesn’t win in London. But if Mateiko/Kamworor run 2:03 or faster in London, or Chebet wins it’s pretty dicey. Kipruto punched his ticket in my eyes.
Evans Chebet isn't even on the list of 10/9 men. Could he be added now that the list is down to 9? Possibly. His exclusion after winning Boston, New York, and Boston from April 2022 to April 2023 was quite astonishing.
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Another thought on Kiplagat. Imagine you’re him. You’ve been steadily improving year by year. In your final chance to show that you’re worthy of being selected for the Kenyan team, you defeat the legendary Kipchoge by nearly 4 minutes. You’re ecstatic because you’ve emphatically demonstrated you belong on the team. Yet he still gets selected over you. I’d be furious!