This is why I enjoy pro cycling and XC skiing more and more. No problem me cares what your time was for Paris-Roubaix.
Imagine Wout Van Aert doing a time trial the day before instead of the main race.
This ^
And Matt, Tom, and Wout going cross-discipline every time a different race comes up. It would be like Kipchoge or Chep running XC, an 800, and a 50K every season, in addition to their speciality.
This is Tiger Woods at his best golfing the Masters alone one day, then the field golfing the same course the next day.
Not exactly. Masters is a major golf championship. Pre meet is just an early season world class track meet.
A record is not going to be in the cards Friday night. Rain, wind and possible thunder storms. I wouldn't be surprised if Cheptegei ends up running the Saturday race.
Huh? The Pre Classic is in 3 weeks. There is no way any weather forecast is accurate enough that far out.
This is very easy to figure out, Jonathan. He doesn't want any competition accept the clock. He wants to run like a machine, not compete with other runners. He doesn't need people mixing up tempo, etc. It's not as much fun for the spectators, but he knows what he wants to do.
Not exactly. Masters is a major golf championship. Pre meet is just an early season world class track meet.
A record is not going to be in the cards Friday night. Rain, wind and possible thunder storms. I wouldn't be surprised if Cheptegei ends up running the Saturday race.
Huh? The Pre Classic is in 3 weeks. There is no way any weather forecast is accurate enough that far out.
Lol my bad, mixed up the date. Not enough coffee this morning! Pre meet is May 28 in 3 weeks.
Don't most of you base GOAT status on how fast of times a runner ran versus how much they win? That's why no one thinks Farah is a GOAT contender, despite being one of the winningest distance runners ever - his times.
Cheptegei wins and breaks world records.
Wins: Silver medal 10,000m 2017 worlds, Gold medal 10,000m 2019 worlds, Gold medal 5,000m olympics, silver medal 10,000m olympics
WR's: 5000m, 10,000m 2020
If you are trying to get a world record, why wouldn't you put yourself in the best possible position (of that era) to lower it as much as possible so it stays around longer? If that means super shoes, wavelight tech., and pacers and it's allowed, do it. No one will ever know if Bekele or Geb or whomever could have run as fast, so you might as well try to get your place in the record books and then wins championship races when those come along.
I had to double-check this to make sure it was real. On Friday night (May 27), Joshua Cheptegei will attempt to break the 5,000m world record at the Pre Classic. Then on Saturday afternoon (May 28), there will be a totally different -- and loaded -- 5,000m featuring Selemon Barega, Moh Ahmed, Paul Chelimo, Jacob Kiplimo, Marc Scott, Berihu Aregawi, and more.
So you've got the Olympic champ racing a bunch of lights for a record he already owns instead of against a field with the other four Tokyo 2020 5k/10k medalists. It's ridiculous. Just put everyone in the same race. Keep it on Friday night so conditions are good and anyone who wants to go for the WR can go for it.
Personally I would rather just see Cheptegei race all those guys without going for the WR.
If you are trying to get a world record, why wouldn't you put yourself in the best possible position (of that era) to lower it as much as possible so it stays around longer? If that means super shoes, wavelight tech., and pacers and it's allowed, do it. No one will ever know if Bekele or Geb or whomever could have run as fast, so you might as well try to get your place in the record books and then wins championship races when those come along.
Well, I think the issue is he's doing it the day before many of the sport's best are contesting the same race distance at the same event. If he ran a NN Running Team event this week chasing the record this week or next week and then ran Pre, nobody would give him crap.
world records and fast times aren't inherently interesting in races where tactics matter. track meets would probably be more fun to watch if the clock were turned off for races over 400m.
This is Tiger Woods at his best golfing the Masters alone one day, then the field golfing the same course the next day.
No it would be more like the NBA allowing each team member to take a certain number of shots from specified area of the court, alone, and then checking the total score at the end. And Cheptegai will run in a "competition" as required. There will be some other pacers or very good A- levels runners who will do some pacing and then jog it in to finish.
Just like BTC did for Holi and Schwi in their 1420 something 5ks, but at least they had each other to race at the end.
What we need are some of these pacers to rise up and upstage the primary runner these record attempts are set up for. The most infamous time this happened in the past that we loved was when Tom Byers won a big 1500 in Oslo as the pacemaker in 1981. Although not a pacemaker, almost everyone loved Solinski winning Rupp's American Record attempt in 2010.
We need adidas to add intrigue and suspense to these attempts by secretly contacting some of these pacers and offering them lots of cash if they run as sort of double agents and beat everyone. They could run in adidas shoes disguised to look like nikes, and reveal their new record setting shoe brand at the finish.
It would have to be very secretive and take lots of money as I am sure that nike would require pacers to sign contracts agreeing not to win races.
Don't most of you base GOAT status on how fast of times a runner ran versus how much they win? That's why no one thinks Farah is a GOAT contender, despite being one of the winningest distance runners ever - his times.
Cheptegei wins and breaks world records.
Wins: Silver medal 10,000m 2017 worlds, Gold medal 10,000m 2019 worlds, Gold medal 5,000m olympics, silver medal 10,000m olympics
WR's: 5000m, 10,000m 2020
If you are trying to get a world record, why wouldn't you put yourself in the best possible position (of that era) to lower it as much as possible so it stays around longer? If that means super shoes, wavelight tech., and pacers and it's allowed, do it. No one will ever know if Bekele or Geb or whomever could have run as fast, so you might as well try to get your place in the record books and then wins championship races when those come along.
Because this setup feels hollow with Barega, the man who beat prime Cheptegei, racing the very next day, in the same stadium, in the same event.
I know people are all on Chep’s jock, but Barega has a very strong claim for being the best 5k/10k guy in the world last year, and if he happens to beat Joshua again at worlds this year…..
It just seems silly to have only Cheptegei when there is another equivalent challenger out there racing the “real” event. These two are on a level of their own when are their peak. There’s no reason to not have them BOTH in the world record attempt unless:
1) Selemon is coming off injury/ not in form
2) One of them is ducking the other
It feels like they’re cheating the fans of something that could be very special. Think about those Geb/Komen battles: absolutely EPIC.
Don't most of you base GOAT status on how fast of times a runner ran versus how much they win? That's why no one thinks Farah is a GOAT contender, despite being one of the winningest distance runners ever - his times.
Cheptegei wins and breaks world records.
Wins: Silver medal 10,000m 2017 worlds, Gold medal 10,000m 2019 worlds, Gold medal 5,000m olympics, silver medal 10,000m olympics
WR's: 5000m, 10,000m 2020
If you are trying to get a world record, why wouldn't you put yourself in the best possible position (of that era) to lower it as much as possible so it stays around longer? If that means super shoes, wavelight tech., and pacers and it's allowed, do it. No one will ever know if Bekele or Geb or whomever could have run as fast, so you might as well try to get your place in the record books and then wins championship races when those come along.
Because this setup feels hollow with Barega, the man who beat prime Cheptegei, racing the very next day, in the same stadium, in the same event.
I know people are all on Chep’s jock, but Barega has a very strong claim for being the best 5k/10k guy in the world last year, and if he happens to beat Joshua again at worlds this year…..
It just seems silly to have only Cheptegei when there is another equivalent challenger out there racing the “real” event. These two are on a level of their own when are their peak. There’s no reason to not have them BOTH in the world record attempt unless:
1) Selemon is coming off injury/ not in form
2) One of them is ducking the other
It feels like they’re cheating the fans of something that could be very special. Think about those Geb/Komen battles: absolutely EPIC.
It's not the Olympics, WC's or some Diamond league final though. It's just a meet, and a bigger meet than what Fisher and Ahmed were entered in for their record-chasing...
You race the big races and you do what you need to work on for the others (tactics, kick, WR etc)
He's not ducking the important races, he's just trying to run fast when he's fit and there's no pressure or consequence to missing or not winning. It's the same thing Kipchoge did with the breaking 2 hoopla.
Because this setup feels hollow with Barega, the man who beat prime Cheptegei, racing the very next day, in the same stadium, in the same event.
I know people are all on Chep’s jock, but Barega has a very strong claim for being the best 5k/10k guy in the world last year, and if he happens to beat Joshua again at worlds this year…..
It just seems silly to have only Cheptegei when there is another equivalent challenger out there racing the “real” event. These two are on a level of their own when are their peak. There’s no reason to not have them BOTH in the world record attempt unless:
1) Selemon is coming off injury/ not in form
2) One of them is ducking the other
It feels like they’re cheating the fans of something that could be very special. Think about those Geb/Komen battles: absolutely EPIC.
It's not the Olympics, WC's or some Diamond league final though. It's just a meet, and a bigger meet than what Fisher and Ahmed were entered in for their record-chasing...
You race the big races and you do what you need to work on for the others (tactics, kick, WR etc)
He's not ducking the important races, he's just trying to run fast when he's fit and there's no pressure or consequence to missing or not winning. It's the same thing Kipchoge did with the breaking 2 hoopla.
3 problems with this logic:
1) This is not equivalent to the Kipchoge situation. Kipchoge was the only one in the world physically capable of running sub 2, I think most of us agree with that. This cannot be said about the 5k currently. Yes Joshua has run the world records, but he was beaten quite handily by Selemon, who showed likely ~12:40 / 26:20 fitness last year.
2) There is no reason Barega (or anyone else at the 12:40 threshold, if they feel they are there) shouldn’t join him for this spectacle. You’re correct, there is no consequence of losing this race long term…..even if other guys were in the race! So let multiple people chase that fast time!
3) This isnt high school track, where accomplishing individual goals is priority number 1 (or shouldn’t be). This is professional sport, I.e entertainment! Do you think the NFL would ever bungle something this badly??? No, instead they’re now having 3 BIG time matchups on Christmas Day. This event should be 100% about entertaining fans with the maximum spectacle and pizazz. They are messing this up….unless they think they can get more PPV dollars online by having 2 events.
This a dangerous road ahead. World athletics needs to put a stop to this kind of nonsense. The pacing lights are bad enough, but non-competitive time-only races (much like some of the BTC time-trials a year or two ago) are not good for the sport.
How many fans have left the sport as a consequence?
While it’s not surprising Nike set it up this way, right now Uganda is crushing the middle distances with Cheptegei and Kiplimo. At the current rate, Kiplimo may go on to break the 10k record in the next year. Why shouldn’t Cheptegei go for the record again if Nike is going to pay him big bonus for WR?
Also, although 99% of the people here hate Mo, you have to admit he raced the best runners at the time and repeatedly won even though every person in the stadium knew his only tactic.
I like Cheptegei for pushing the limits while he can with his best speed. At some point we will surely see Cheptegei in the marathon when he’s done on the track.
A 5000m race at 1pm. Ugh. Why doesn't the Pre meet become a Saturday evening/night race? Why do they insist on running in the middle of the afternoon.....not ideal time for fast time.