Shots Fired: Josh Kerr Says Jakob Surrounded by "Yes-Men", Has Major Weakness, and "pretty high" ego

THOUGHTSLEADER wrote:

Trollminator wrote:

I didn't buy the sick card. He was way too fast to have been significantly impacted by any illness, which we only heard about after he lost.

Jakob's opportunity to be seriously considered GOAT in the 1500 will dwindle from now on. A bunch of paced DL wins won't cut it... he'll need the WR or OG next year to move up distance in peace. My prediction is that assuming he's healthy, he'll win if the race goes out in <3:30 pace and he sits on the leader with 600-400 to go. But what are the chances of this happening? Who is going to take it out that fast to hand him gold? He's going to have to tactically earn gold and prove himself like ElG did.

Abel Kipsang is happy to run 55-56/1:54/2:52 and then kick. So far, Jakob and others haven’t been satisfied with that. Jakobs flaw last year (sick or not) was he didn’t have much the last lap. Even with Kerr running extra and having to do some attacking, Jakob had no gear at the end. That is why I buy that he was sick. He would close better in a 3:29 race (with 2 days rest) than that.

always about on the day wrote:

Jakob can run away from most at 2k and above. 1500m not so much. Yes, Wightman will be unknowable after this year's injury, Kerr beat him, and Nuguse will have more confidence and perhaps Nordas or even Laros. Without a pacer, Jakob is vulnerable to someone on their day who can kick with him.

Wightman didn't get dropped, nor did Kerr, so Jakob lost. Jakob may need to change his strategy somewhat to get away - how/when he practices that, or whether his brain trust can figure out a way to get that done, such that he, and he alone, can handle it may be another matter. How far out can he go that doesn't negatively his finish? he tried that in the World 5000 (2019) (but was still a teenager) and couldn't do it from 300m out (died last 100m). If he misjudges his speed from far out would he fall apart again? That is what makes it interesting without a pacer, he doesn't hold all the cards. Guys don't have to run fast necessarily in the heats/semi either since there are no little q's anymore.

John Wesley Harding wrote:

Secret recipe wrote:

the Truth is that there is a formula right now for winning the world / Olympic championships in the 1500. And it’s simple. Just train for having a big kick off a fast pace. Let Jacob run himself out chasing fast times in the early season and in the first 3/4 of the race and then kick.

I think what Josh said was correct but he might not be the best person to say those things. There’s not many people in the world right now that could trash talk him without getting a lot of hate.

Yes, all you have to do is just train to close in 52.xx in a 3:28-3:29 race. Easy-peasy.

People largely seem to admire Jakob for speaking his mind without pulling punches and being brutally honest to the point of shameless arrogance—it’s the Norwegian way, or the sign of a next level Jordanesque athlete, or whatever. But they have a big problem with Kerr expressing his honest takes on Jakob. In fairness, perhaps they are too personal.

This thread is laced with a common LetsRun trait, where people leap on emotion from feeling athlete A (Kerr) isn’t in the same class as athlete B (Ingebrigtsen), which is reasonable, to acting like athlete A is a complete scrub who had one fluke race they can never repeat, which is unreasonable. Both are great athletes. It won’t be remotely surprising if Kerr runs 3:28 and earns another Olympic medal in 2024.

Of course, despite what happened in Budapest I would pick Jakob over Kerr at 1500 any day. Jakob is in a different league as far as career achievements and apparent potential. And it is probably about time for Kerr to shut up about Jakob and put his head down for Paris.

Trollminator wrote:

THOUGHTSLEADER wrote:

We rarely see him in slow 1500m races but in Rabat last year we saw a glimpse. Then in the heats you saw a glimpse. If you’re in the lead you don’t need a massive finish you just need to fend off an attack and run low-13s for the last couple 100m splits. Kerr ran a nice race but it’s not like he was flying the last 100 as much as Jakob was falling apart.

IMO the poor strategy did him in. If you start to take Vienna then take Vienna. He was not fully committed in that final. He waited too long to take the lead and make it a faster race. Look at how far back Kerr was a lap and a half in. Jakob's early indecision cost him that race. He really needed to drain the well and run 3:28 to zap & gap the others and take gold. Sit and kick off a slow pace could mean no medal for him.

Redonculous Maximus wrote:

MidHobbyJogger wrote:

I mean this in the nicest way possible, Kerr has no room to talk when it comes to other people having unnecessarily big egos. He knocks Jakob for his tactics, but doesn’t mention that Jakob’s beaten him at every other global championships, be it Doha, Tokyo, Eugene, or even world U20’s. Kinda funny to see that he’s still so upset about being called “the next guy.” I know he’s saying this just to probably get under Jakob’s skin but I think it’s ironic given he still isn’t over Jakob’s statement.

Yeah, but that’s the beauty of his 2023 victory over Jakob. Jakob is the superior (perhaps more talented) athlete, trained as a world class 1500m since he was 14, with world class training partners and coach, who demonstrated repeatedly that he is ‘Time Trialer Numero Uno’ over and over again this past summer. And he got his a$ handed to him by an ‘inferior’ Josh Kerr… a year after having his a$ handed to him by Jake Weightman. And 6 months before that it was Samuel Tefera.

The guys are basically just running train on him now.

It’s embarrassing.