Yea McDonald definitely wasn’t concerned with winning, just needed to qualify. Maybe he even thought he might juice up Fisher by letting him win.
Yea McDonald definitely wasn’t concerned with winning, just needed to qualify. Maybe he even thought he might juice up Fisher by letting him win.
They both won their own psychological battles. Fisher beat McDonald, which is good for his psyche and bad for McDonald, almost as a rule. Fisher also showed he can either win a 13:40s race with a 54 final 400 (which is nearly world class), or a 13:20s 5k with a 3:01 last 1200 (likewise). In both races, Fisher closed in 4:05. No matter what, that is going to worry McDonald a little bit—Fisher can win in different ways, and he just beat McDonald, regardless of the nature of the race.
McDonald closed a 13:40s race in 55 jogging the last 100 meters. His form was clearly more relaxed than Fisher, yet he was still gaining on Fisher at the top of the straightaway. Fisher had to work hard to beat him, and he clearly wasn’t all out. That, plus McDonald’s nonchalant interview afterward, will bother Fisher, if Fisher ever fires up his FloTrack subscription to watch. His victory over McDonald is a little hollow, and McDonald is clearly in nuts shape.
NCAAs is going to be amazing.
McDonald won the Aussie 5000 in February on the Gold Coast (read August in Austin) where it was in the 80s and humid; the time was 13:19. Anyone here really think that Fisher is going to beat someone someone that did that 16 month's before and is now in better shape? Really? Agree that Beamish is a threat, but BYU weather is not good prep for Austin in June. If McDonald really wanted to win this he would have been on the shoulder of the leader over the last 1000 and taken the lead when he needed to. The only hesitation I have from calling a clear favorite is that McDonald is more focused on October than anyone else here (except for Beamish?) and so is unlikely to be at a full peak, whereas this is Fisher's primary race of the year trying to beat McDonald in a Championship race (0-2 so far).
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