Proud of Anna. I follow her on ig and would see her put in hours and hours and hours of work every day, in and out, doing rehab and swimming and strength work to get back to where she was and now she is US champion after starting the year being unable to walk. Spirit of a warrior.
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3:28.5 feels more like the dividing line, and I’m high on Hocker. But Kerr, Nuguse and Jakob maybe separate if it’s that fast. We’ve never seen Hocker run in that range.
In fact this race was Hocker's pb so a long ways from 3:28.5
If the 3rd place person doesn’t have the standard but is ranked 20 and the 4th place person is ranked 16 then who actually makes it? That’s kinda how heptathlon is set up rn.
This wasn't a tactical race... it was a fast race. Kessler absolutely did the right thing by gluing himself on Nuguse's back... which I guess is technically good tactics, but it wasn't a hard plan to execute.
I think people might be underselling why it was a fast race--because Nuguse and Kessler deliberately pushed the pace. Both wanted a fast pace (to reduce randomness and cull the field) and both moved to the front to make it happen. These were tactical decisions, including because it was the third round in four days, so it wasn't totally without the risk of blowing up.
it wasn't a risk for nuguse because he is that good. and for kessler, it was just nice enough of a pace that he could keep up without worries. especially with the slow 2nd lap