Does J Kerr own a home in Oregon? If not, traveling to Eugene is not easy. Unless a gal or guy lives in or near Eugene and owns acres of land, why travel to Eugene, Oregon?
Everyone on this thread cutting down J Kerr for not planning on racing in Eugene are J Ingebrigtsen fanboys.
I stated over a year ago, Timothy Cheruiyot should never race J Ingebrigtsen again in a 1500m race with pace lights and paid pacers. I now say J Kerr should never race J Ingebrigtsen again in a 1500m race with pace lights and paid pacers. If J Ingebrigtsen wants to race T Cheruiyot and J Kerr again in non-championship races, J Ingebrigtsen should let the men know he will race them in 800m or 1000m races.
Why would Jakob want to do that? Because it wouldn't be fair to his competitors to race him in a paced 1500? Maybe we should give the field a head start?
It's sickening to see this message board go to such waste back in the day we would have conversations about this sport run fortunately and not surprisingly it is become diluted with misinformation that some people appointed out of Shawnee state aquinas and grand valley.
i only care about who the absolute best is in a field. measured by objective metrics.
in this sport of running, it's time.
who has the lowest time (in recent history) is the best.
and since this sport is individual, there can be no excuses attributed to teammates
imagine the world champ unable to beat the runner-ups time that the runner-up (which was run in the same season).
sure, kerr won a fair world champs final. congrats to him. it's a big accomplishment.
but he ain't the best
Nah. Racing isn't about times, it's about winning. There's no medals for time trials. Every single athlete worth a damn would trade all of their PBs for a single gold medal. You can believe Jakob is the best, that's fine, but he wasn't the best on that day.
One aspect of this that did occur to me is that the insistence of the Pre meet organisers on running a mile might have played a part in Kerr's decision. If it was a 1500, it might have brought Farah's record into play as an incentive for Kerr to run. The 1500 record is a lot more prestigious than the mile, no one cares about the mile outside of the US and British boomers
cheptegei is still a better 5k runner than jakob. even though jakob won the world champs back-to-back.
12:35 is objectively a better time than 12:48 (although everyone knows jakob is well below 12:48 now)
who is a better championship racer is a different question. jakob > cheptegei in racing tactics. kerr > jakob in racing tactics.
but what matters in 100 years will be whoever had the fastest time.
look at centrowitz. the won the olympic gold. but he never even broke 3:30.
he has a ceremonial achievement, but his skill level is far below countless others who have gone sub-3:30.
These are kinda grand statements. And people do care who wins World/Olympic titles and medals over times alone. How many remember Silas Kiplagat more than Centrowitz, Cheruiyot etc? Or will remember Letesenet Gidey over Sifan Hassan?
We also don't really know about Cheptegei vs. Jakob in the 5K because in Tokyo he ran a tactically great race and won easily (Jakob didn't double). In 2022, he got hurt in the prelims and wasn't close to healthy in the final. In 2023, he withdrew. If his 10,000 tactics/peaking and Tokyo 5,000m result are any indication, he might be really good tactically and be Jakob's toughest competitor. A shame we haven't seen it yet.
He's based in Seattle, the place that one of the regular LR trollers calls the "Rift Valley of American distance running". That said, the Beasts go to Albuquerque at least three times a year for high altitude training stints.
Furthermore a Diamond League rematch at this point literally means nothing as no-one thinks Jakob isn't the most fit runner, but he clearly has a weakness in championship style racing in the 1500 which obliterating everyone in a Diamond League field does not address. It is pure ego massaging at best.
I don't think it's reasonable to conclude that Jakob planned on running 3:29.65 in Budapest. He had no bounce from early in the race. I believe he was sick. But it also could be that he underestimates the impact of running the heats, especially the way he decides to do it. Jakob always emphasizes the benefit of running evenly. In the global heats he does the opposite of that. He leaves himself too much to do then comes charging late.
Contrast to Kipyegon, who always applies the same style in heats and the final. Jakob doesn't seem to realize that if he went to the front in the heats the field would be scared of him and he could get away with slower times and expending less energy than his current approach.
Regardless, it's interesting that neither Wightman nor Kerr have faced Jakob since defeating him. Kerr knows it wouldn't happen again. Other than Budapest he's never defeated Jakob in anything besides a Eugene heat last year. Despite being several years older he could never finish ahead of Jakob when Jakob was new to the circuit. Wightman is older still and did finish ahead of Jakob several times when Jakob was a teenager.
Furthermore a Diamond League rematch at this point literally means nothing as no-one thinks Jakob isn't the most fit runner, but he clearly has a weakness in championship style racing in the 1500 which obliterating everyone in a Diamond League field does not address. It is pure ego massaging at best.
BS. It would be a VERY highly anticipated race, rabbited or not. It would be great for the fans and he get a nice appearance fee. If I could get paid like 20k and benefit the sport, I'd do it even if it meant I had to go to Eugene for the weekend.
And what I'd love to see Jakob at the start line, point to the rabbits and say, "Get off the track. I'm going to take this from the front myself to show you guys."
How epic would that be?
If they have rabbits, I hope he goes for the WR. It equates to about a 3:26.56 1500 so it's a bit easier.
what a joke. he said that jakob won the 5k finals because jakob decided to take it slow (the pace?)
after world champs:
kerr: asks for the 1500m european record for the pacemakers. fails. loses to nuguse.
drops out of diamond league final because zurich cost too much on his body.
jakob: asks for the 2000m world record for the pacemakers. wins the race. gets the world record.
doesn't drop out of diamond league because even the 2000m world record was easy.
which one exhibits world champion mentality?
Which one has the gold?
Kerr has the gold, Jakobs had golds. Jakob has 2 WC golds and 1 Olympic gold. That's 3 and 5 total medals. Kerr has 1 gold and 1 bronze. So in conclusion, Jakob >>> Kerr.
It's long established that Kerr peaks for championship races and isn't too interested in DL wins, and he has an olympic bronze and WC gold to show for his approach. On the other hand, DL heroes like Nuguse and Katir came away with absolutely nada.
Isn't too intrested is another way of saying, "Can't do it." All runners are interested in winning on the DL. Most of them simply can't do it.
But eeryone is trying to peak for Worlds, including Jakob. Kerr did it magnificently this year and deserves a lot of credit. But this puts me in a sour mood and will make the 1500 all the more interesting in 2024.
And i do wish the DL and Jakob would do some 1500s without rabbits. 1 a year.