There weren't many diminishing returns when he improved 11 secs. That's like a rocket taking off.
The point is that as you reach closer to your maximum potential improvement will plateau. That's exactly what has happened. Hocker may or may not be doping (I think most sub 3:30 runners are for the matter) but his argument is intellectually infantile.
No, it isn't. Of course you would expect a slowing in improvement at some point but in his case it has come off a huge jump in a relatively short period of time. 11 seconds over 1500 - or 9 seconds - at that level is pretty much off the charts. No one expects that it would continue at that rate. The argument for doping is the extent of the improvement at the level reached (world class) and taking into account the age of the athlete (like Katir's huge jump in his twenties). The argument isn't that this rate of improvement will be continued indefinitely.
I found the interview: You have to download the NRK radio app, then search for “I det lange løp» (pod cast). The interview is named «Gjert Ingebrigtsen», and is from Dec 10 2021, and is in Norwegian (no problem for you I guess).
Thanks but I'm actually not Norwegian! Although, my account name was inspired by the Norwegian word for run (løpe). Just spelled how it sounds to me in English. I picked it up from Team Ingebrigtsen and always loved how it sounded.
Btw, someone linked the letsrun thread where the interview was translated so I have it now anyway.
Beamish was an ncaa indoor mile champ. Not very applicable nor is Woody whose best event remains and has been the 5,000. Narve is by himself, and let’s be honest if you told anyone that a 13:15 guy training double threshold for years became a stud in a different event a year later, 999 times out of 1000 you'd go with the 10K or up. Nobody would suggest the 1500, which is why he is a major anomaly. Maybe someone could suggest the Steeple, but certainly not the 1500.
I think you misunderstood here -I didn’t mean that Beamish, Kincaid and Nordås are “anomalies” in the same general way. But only when it comes to kicking ability… And even there the similarities may be somewhat superficial: Beamish has said that he maybe structures his races a little wrongly (too much left in the tank for the last lap -should maybe try to hang and get a better overall time), whereas Nordås seems to run fast enough overall, (in both his 3.29 races) and nevertheless has this fast kick…
I don’t know what to say about the rest of your reasoning here… -Maybe you underrate Narve’s capacity when it comes to 1500/3000/5000 and even 10000m the years 2021/22: I have mentioned the 5 th placing in Euros indoor looking straight into Katir’s back at the home stretch (Katir ran 7.27 some months later). And Narve won in Finland later in 7.41 -never ran an all out 3000m when in form, as far as I know… And in 2022 I watched him winning in 7.43 in Bergen with a blistering last lap (52/53?) while waving to the crowd… Could he have run 10 sec faster here?
Narve did 13.16 in 2021. -He front ran most of the race (Henrik I. out kicked him after being paced the whole way, with a few hundreds of a second) -could Nordås have done 13.05 that day (in a field)?
Narve ran pb 3.36.2 for the win in May 2022 -before even letting up for 5000 pace in the training. Clearly he could have run a much faster 1500m if the event had been prioritised that season. -Yes, he does double threshold, but so does Jakob, and he prioritises the 15. And the latter suggested (to his father ) that Nordås should go for the 1500m in the near future. And so they did in 2023 -unusual, but maybe not strange…
What do I know -maybe Narve isn’t a complete anomaly after all. -Maybe he had to become a very good runner after all, when the right context eventually was set in place..?