Curiously George wrote:
What I find petty is Avila saying he feels like he is the national champion. That's just stupid and disrespectful. Dude, you knew the rules before. When you decided not to go to the front in the A heat, you willingly gave up that title. Nice kick for second, though.
That's ridiculous to say.
First he said "feels he is the champion" probably because he won the A section, which usually means you're the champ.
He didnt say he is or he should be. He just said he felt (Probably in his heart) like he won.
Also, this is right after the race, I'm sure there's emotions flying around. Probably rough to see Hunter Celebrating with the NBC cameras following him around, after you just took down a field.
Nobody in a championship race is willing to rabbit the field, unless there's a commraderee or collective group that agree to push together.
There was a great interview with Ben Blankenship last year after world Indoors, asking him why it always goes tactical in championships.
He said:
"Why do you keep asking these questions? Do you want to lead? You're gonna get eaten alive."
Sure. In this case they definitely should have spoken to eachother and got the pace going. But 99% of the time that isn't the case. You race the field, not the clock.[/quote]
Credit to Avila - he did go and congratulate Hunter as soon as it was clear that Hunter had won. Reminds me of the race years ago where Tom Beyers was pacemaker and got away. None of the big guns wanted to lead the chase, as they were more worried about beating each other than winning the race...