Big Drama in Zurich: Official 2014 Wetlklasse Zürich DL Discussion Thread

Isn't his post race w/o 3 x Mile x 4:02-4:04?

He beat 5 of the 6 Kenyans. Good work!

Good to see the Americans up there. Finally, the blood passes

are working. 5000m the slowest in decade.

Sledge wrote:

Rupp ran a well measured race. Good season for him.

Rupp certainly was in the mix.

The thing I didn't get about the race was why don't the announcers talk about the DL race. Alamirew was awful and the only way he could lose the title was for him to bomb and Ndiku to win and that's what happen.

Why have the points race if you aren't going to hype it??

Frustrating to see him get passed so late... but yea, solid tactical race i suppose. Put himself in good position for the last 300. Just didn't have the wheels for the last 100.

rupp beats alamirew and gebrhiwet again. This will be forgotten by most posters on the board within minutes.

Some good news from sprinting - Tyson Gay was DFL

The Champ wrote:

rupp beats alamirew and gebrhiwet again. This will be forgotten by most posters on the board within minutes.

+ Longosiwa, Lalang, Choge, Tanui, Soi & Koech. That's a lot of impressive scalps.

Also very nice race for Ben True. Was with the lead group when the "real racing began" and stayed ahead of several big names at the end.

On the other hand, what's the deal with Cam Levins?

Rupp gave it a good go. He did not try to take the pace and push for the American record, but that being said, his tactics were excellent for the purpose of going for a win in a sit and kick, staying back until the pace started heating up, moving up into second at the bell, and pushing next to Ndiku without going all out on the backstretch, but he just did not have that extra gear that Ndiku and Edris had. No shame at all in 3rd here. True also pushed up there pretty good but certainly did not have even Rupp's speed that last lap. We still haven't seen Rupp with the kick that he showed in 2012 at USATF and Olympic 10k.

rojo wrote:

The thing I didn't get about the race was why don't the announcers talk about the DL race. Alamirew was awful and the only way he could lose the title was for him to bomb and Ndiku to win and that's what happen.

Why have the points race if you aren't going to hype it??

It is a curiosity that Alamirew did not even run the previous race. Somebody mentioned in a different thread a while back that this is one way, politically, positive (or suspicious) tests could be handled. Maybe this is an overly cynical idea here.

Performance of the meet was Habiba Ghribi who put the burn on Ayalew and dumped her by the last WJ. Albeit soft, it was the only MR of the day. I didn't notice any world leads or great performances, other than minor PB's or AR's. Not a very good Zurich. They could improve it by ending the double-points business so not everyone wants to be "tactical."

Kiprop took a big dump on track as he sometimes does.

Sciatica Road wrote:

rojo wrote:

The thing I didn't get about the race was why don't the announcers talk about the DL race. Alamirew was awful and the only way he could lose the title was for him to bomb and Ndiku to win and that's what happen.

Why have the points race if you aren't going to hype it??

It is a curiosity that Alamirew did not even run the previous race. Somebody mentioned in a different thread a while back that this is one way, politically, positive (or suspicious) tests could be handled. Maybe this is an overly cynical idea here.

Or you know, MAYBE, someone was suffering an injury and that would also explain the poor performance upon return?

agip wrote:

I had rupp at around 4:05 for his last 1600 - not too shabby

Yes, they finished fast. 13:20 pace for the first 2/3 of the race or so, and then 12:30 pace for the last 1000+ meters. Yet another solid, unsurprising 5000 for Rupp.

Alamirew got sick after African Championships, and couldn't train for more than 10 days. He went Zurich because was the first in DL as point, and for winning the final challenge it's a MUST to run the final.

But he well knew his only chance was Ndiku not winning.

Also Caleb had problems after African Championships. He had cough and fever for two days, and may suggestion was to skip Stockholm, looking directly at the Continental Cup.

Fortunately, he wanted to run, and at the end he had reason.

In Stockholm his first under 13' was a miracle, but really he was far from the best Ndiku (who remains the one winning Eugene).

Today, he was the athlete with the best personality in the race, but his shape is still far from the top.

He looked at the last lap only, while usually has to use a progression for the last km, and the last lap was not very fast. However, this was enough for winning.

This year Caleb reached all the goal we had at the beinning of the season : World Indoor Championships, Commonwealth Champs, African Champs and DL, but the season was too much complicated, and with too many races of 5000m.

Next year, looking at WCh, we need to change many things.

Thank you for this information

1. Aman 10p

2. Amos 10p

3. Rudisha 10p

creating a three way points tie, and rudisha ultimately winning.