Official Monday Morning Olympic Discussion Thread: Men's Steeple & Women's 5000 Finals

birdbeard wrote:

Kind of hard to see anyone beating Elaine Thompson in the 200m, but Gabby Thomas now has +1900 odds. If you think she was saving a bit in the rounds, those aren't horrible odds for the 2nd fastest woman in history (although I wouldn't be shocked to see Thompson go sub 21.60 in the final after she cruised that heat).

Mboma is at +2000 if you don't think she was pressing fully either.

Only two people were cruising in their 200M races. Elaine Thompson who looks to be a lock for the gold and Mboma who will contend for one of the other medals. Miller-Uibo does not look sharp at all. She is going to regret not trying for the 400M. That would have been an easier win for her than the 200M silver or bronze.

runnerexpert wrote:

The Stache wrote:

No they didn't. K splits were 3:00, 3:00, 2:59, 2:58, and 2:38.

Yep, they weren't going to slow down in that part of the race, it was an idiotic comment by the announcer and shows a real lack of understanding basic elite racing

Wrong. You are the idiot. The announcers were exactly correct. The lead pack surged for a lap and ran a 69. This dropped the Ameicans. Then the pack slowed back down on the next lap and ran a 73. This allowed the Americans to catch back up. Cranny and Schweizer did NOT surge to catch back up. They were let back in ot until the pack surged again and dropped them for good. Crap race by the burrito girls.

Cranny ran great in tough conditions. She ran only 8 seconds off of her personal best.

Warholm live odds just went to 1.80 with the final tonight. He was a huge 1.4 pre race favorite I just smacked a ton down on that and I encourage others to follow.

igotoneforyou wrote:

Flow From Regressive wrote:

Matt MF Hughes. Great result after struggling for the last year or so.

+1!! Excellent result!

Yeah, hard to beat his record in major competitions. Two 6ths at Worlds, a 10th at the Olympics, and now another 6th at the Olympics. This from a guy whose SB was 8:39 or something like that this year. Super impressive. Really didn't think he'd make the final this year, to be honest.

Another giver of +1 wrote:

Jo72 wrote:

Her old PR from Doha would have been a respectable result today. I really wonder why they struggled to keep up with 2:59 pace. It wasn't really fast until the last kilometer.

My guess the near 100% humidity, not acclimated as well as the Japanese runner who led then kept up longer. Or, the burrito effect has warn off.

Didn't they train in Park City leading up to the Olympics? Why? It seems like it would have made more sense to train in FL in TX to simulate Tokyo conditions.

At any rate there are a lot of places in the US that have similar conditions to Tokyo where they could have acclimatized.

Off the burrito sauce.

Or only know how to run fast under ideal, time-trial conditions.

No medals coming from heat 3. That is the opposite of a stacked heat.

They trained in Hawaii after Park City.

You don’t get all the hate? Do you not realize that it’s coming from pathetic misogynistic losers who in their dreams couldn’t run under 15:00?

Takeaways from the day:

1. Huge ups to Valerie Allman. Everyone knew the weather was coming and blasting that first throw was very clutch to get out in front.

2. Girma and Wale should've made it an 8:05 or faster race. Played right into El Bakkali and Kigen's hands and cost Wale a medal.

3. El Bakkali working on his speed paid off. He was much more confident this year than ever that he could be patient and kick the field down. Him and Jager used to be too aggressive to get the jump on the field and it often cost them at the finish. Though, versus Kemboi/Kipruto's lethal finish you can understand it.

4. Did Kigen get away with clipping Wale...either way Kigen was going to pip him.

5. Just like point no. 2 I think the Kenyans and Ethiopians missed an opportunity at least to stretch Hassan. A hard move at 800 or 1000 might've made them more competitive. Fast last lap without a buildup is a cakewalk for Hassan.

6. Disappointed in Cranny/Schweizer not being on the pack until the last lap. Not bad performances, but they were getting dropped too easily (69 second laps).

7. Kirani James looks back! I don't think he has another level, which Zambrano might but he still looks like he can nab a medal.

8. Cherry and Norman look composed and solid, but they also look like they'll be off the podium. Have to favor Gardiner, Zambrano and James for the medals.

9. Muhammad, McLaughlin and Bol 1-2-3 in some order as we expected. Seems a fait accompli after those semis.

10. Jamaica 1-2 looks inevitable in the 200. I think a Namibian will beat Gabby Thomas for the bronze too. Just too much firepower for the Americans unfortunately. I think Thomas runs 21.8x and gets 4th with Miller-Uibo 5th in 21.9x

11. Sad for Sandi Morris and Wayde Van Niekerk. Brutal between WVN just never putting it all together and Sandi's broken pole.

12. Are we so sure Miller-Uibo isn't running 400 meters too? She's on the entry list and putting all her eggs into the 200 seems silly.

I don't feel any sympathy for the Burrito Track Clowns getting dusted today. Go drown your sorrows in some greasy offal.

5. Just like point no. 2 I think the Kenyans and Ethiopians missed an opportunity at least to stretch Hassan. A hard move at 800 or 1000 might've made them more competitive. Fast last lap without a buildup is a cakewalk for Hassan.

I was surprised Tsegay didn't have more of a move with that set up of a last lap kick.

The Stache wrote:

5. Just like point no. 2 I think the Kenyans and Ethiopians missed an opportunity at least to stretch Hassan. A hard move at 800 or 1000 might've made them more competitive. Fast last lap without a buildup is a cakewalk for Hassan.

I was surprised Tsegay didn't have more of a move with that set up of a last lap kick.

Hassan ran sub 58, Obiri and Tsegay still about 59 secs, that's pretty fast. People seem to have forgotten that until her incredible performances in the last year, Tsegay was good, but no way that good. Her bronze in Doha was a surprise with a huge PB after rather disappointing performances in Monaco and Zurich.

And she was never even among the top 10 in the 3k/5k before 2021. Even in 2020 she struggled for a PB of 14:46. Her 8:22, 3:53 indoors as well as sub 30 10k and 14:13 were about as surprising and suspicious as anything since Dibaba's 3:50. Sure, she was a sub 4 1500m runner as a junior but basically remained at that level until Doha and always seemed more of an 800/1500m runner. Her long distance performances with >30 s improvement in 5k is more striking than any improvement by Hassan, I'd say. But even with these improvements she had never been the best of kickers compared to Hassan or Obiri (or Muir in the 1500m).

But I agree that the Ethiopians should have tried at least surging for the last 1200-1000m. It might not have worked but waiting until the last lap was to be play into Hassan's cards.

Ethiopians and Kenyans knew that surging the last 3 laps would not break Hassan. Geday ran 3:16 1200 before bell lap in the Doha 10k and Hassan still kicked a 61 last lap. Tsegay and Obiri’s only hope was to try and out kick Hassan.

Sometimes you gotta tip your hat.

avnlkkn wrote:

Stop acting like this was a super slow race that played into Hassan's hands. 14:36 in this heat/humidity is probably worth 14:10-14:15 in ideal weather. Hassan is just better than everyone else, hands down. She would have spanked Obiri in the 5k in Doha if she had ran it.

The first 3km was 9:00, the last 1,500 in 4:08...pretty much another 1,500 heat for her off a slow jog.

4km was still only 11:57, last 800 in 2:04, absolutely no increase in pace until pretty much last lap in 57 sec

It was less than 30 deg after the storm, and at night

YO BROJOS, PLEASE MAKE ANOTHER DISCUSSION THREAD BEFORE IT'S LATE THANKS

I like Debues-Stafford for the bronze. Think she outkicks her ex-training partner Muir.

Andy Diaz DNS in the triple. Injured?