having the fastest 800 does not determine who is fastest over the last 200 of a 1500 or elliott Giles would win everything . Jake Wightman is the only guy that is a 800/1500 type runner of the so called top contenders ( Giles the exception) so its only natural that he is more wired and experienced to run a faster 800 ..... Anyway I have been closely following this event for over 40 years and have never experienced such hype and anticipation over an Olympic 1500 except perhaps Moscow when it was really about 2 runners whereas Paris is going to be like an 800 and if you Make the final then you are definitely good enough to have a shot at gold. Of course Jacob is the favorite as the worst he has finished against the deepest pool of 1500 m runners in history over the last 3 years is 2nd . If we had a crystal ball then we wouldn't bother watching sport .
It sure is a great time to be a fan..... just enjoy the ride because this is a golden era like we've never seen before.
The race went in out in 1:54 with no rabbits. Due to his lack of speed, he had to lead and ran 3:29.
In his 3:27, he went out in 1:51 and had a rabbit until 1200m.
It’s just hard to win that way
If Kerr had rabbit for 1200m, he could probably run 3:27 too.
In Lausanne Kerr had a rabbit (Jakob) for more than 1200m -Josh ran 3.29 high (glued to Jakob’s back the whole race, and faded on the home straight. ) And lost even to Girma…
The race went in out in 1:54 with no rabbits. Due to his lack of speed, he had to lead and ran 3:29.
In his 3:27, he went out in 1:51 and had a rabbit until 1200m.
It’s just hard to win that way
If Kerr had rabbit for 1200m, he could probably run 3:27 too.
His Silesia pb run was nearly a solo run (he was helped in the first bend -got the inner lane, and had a little draft advantage of McSweyn (very little distance)…
Haha of course he can? Just not at his best level. I guess its clear you’ve never done any sports or are trolling at this point.
I've done a lot of different sports for over sixty years. You don't know what actual sickness does to an athlete - and sickness isn't a sore throat or the "sniffles".
You don't know what actual sickness does to an athlete - and sickness isn't a sore throat or the "sniffles".
I don't buy Jakob's excuses but this is wrong. One can have a cold, having a sore throat, a headache. That's being sick. Being sick doesn't have to be anything more dramatic.
He didn't underperform. He performed to his level at that time. No athlete is going to perform at his absolute best in every race - or they would never have a "best" level. They are athletes, not machines.
Jakob is not a machine, but if we divide athletes into inconsistent ones (f.ex Jakob’s brothers, Narve Nordås, McSweyn, Almgren, even Kiprop) and consistent ones (Bekele’s track and xc career, El Guerrouj, Cheruiyot -before his injuries, and a lot of others) one clearly can see that Jakob belongs to the latter group. Yes, so clearly that some have called him Mr. Consistency. But that doesn’t mean Jakob is untouched by bad days or periods -in spring 2019 he had a minor set back that was resolved by adjusting the training, and his 2021 and 2022 seasons weren’t as good as expected after his stellar 2020 1500m pb. But all this is something else than a bad day in between -can be explained by larger patterns like sickness and injuries, but also long term developmental things…
Even the inconsistency guys aren’t necessarily that big an enigma. -There are reasons for the variety. But most importantly here: Even these guys very seldom variate from day to day -they have their periods of good or bad performances (simply because the reasons for things usually last more than one day)…
Jakob underperformed grossly in WC indoors and WC 2023. This can’t be explained with a sudden and unexpected bad day. But a messed up altitude regime (amount of days from ended altitude camp) or peaking problems are strong enough things to explain the underachievement of 3 sec indoors and 2.5 sec outdoors. So how plausible is that -well, Jakob was according to himself feeling very well in the short period between his indoor WR and the indoors WC. But in the latter he felt “like sht” (his own words), and therefore took a Covid test that was positive. Of course he may lie about both his feeling and the Covid test, but given his long time reputation of peaking well (in champs) and mastering altitude, this is not likely (being a liar)…
In WC 2023 Jakob impresses in the heat and the semis (especially in the last one -he looks to be in the shape of his life. I personally expected a 3.27 flat solo run after that -some 2 sec faster than guys like Kerr). So what happens 3 days later -Jakob does no errors and have no accidents in the final. And Kerr doesn’t run any faster than expected. But Jakob is totally flat..! Well, this happens very seldom even to an inconsistent guy, but almost never to a routined and consistent guy like Jakob. And he clearly has a sore throat, and he says he feels sick. I rest my case!
You are clearly bias here -you have to look at the gap between Jakob and the pacers, He clearly didn’t follow them, and he explained why in the post interviews.
I've done a lot of different sports for over sixty years. You don't know what actual sickness does to an athlete - and sickness isn't a sore throat or the "sniffles".
You are right here. But sometimes a light sickness is very superficial and doesn’t effect the performance, but sometimes it does. One has to judge the context here. Or even talk to the athlete (unless one regards him as a consistent and pathological liar..!)…
You are clearly bias here -you have to look at the gap between Jakob and the pacers, He clearly didn’t follow them, and he explained why in the post interviews.
Haha of course he can? Just not at his best level. I guess its clear you’ve never done any sports or are trolling at this point.
I've done a lot of different sports for over sixty years. You don't know what actual sickness does to an athlete - and sickness isn't a sore throat or the "sniffles".
Yes, its a light sickness.... thats the whole point here that you keep seeming to miss. Of course he would not be able to race if he had a more severe sickness. Are you purposely misunderstanding? If you have been sporst for over sixty years you should know that you can feel a bit under the weather and perform sub-par to your optimum.
Of course he may lie about both his feeling and the Covid test, but given his long time reputation of peaking well (in champs) and mastering altitude, this is not likely (being a liar)…
Hmm...he was sick after peaking for indoor world champs 2022, outdoor world champs 2023, and also Monaco a couple of weeks before he left for the Olympics 2021. That to me, is actually a pretty damning record for 'peaking well' for champs.
You don't know what actual sickness does to an athlete - and sickness isn't a sore throat or the "sniffles".
I don't buy Jakob's excuses but this is wrong. One can have a cold, having a sore throat, a headache. That's being sick. Being sick doesn't have to be anything more dramatic.
Being sick is having a performance level significantly affected by an illness. That didn't happen. He lost because he was beaten.
I've done a lot of different sports for over sixty years. You don't know what actual sickness does to an athlete - and sickness isn't a sore throat or the "sniffles".
Yes, its a light sickness.... thats the whole point here that you keep seeming to miss. Of course he would not be able to race if he had a more severe sickness. Are you purposely misunderstanding? If you have been sporst for over sixty years you should know that you can feel a bit under the weather and perform sub-par to your optimum.
Sickness is the wrong word. A "light sickness" (a running nose?) doesn't count. The only reason he raised it and it's been adopted by his fans is that it gives him an excuse for losing. It doesn't.
In the '54 Vancouver "Miracle Mile" Bannister ran with a conspicuously heavy cold. He won and ran his fastest ever time. He made no mention of his cold yet according to the definition offered here he ran with a "sickness". Landy, whom he beat, gashed his foot the night before on a broken light bulb. He made no mention of it after the race but said "the better man won on the day". Ingebrigtsen - and his fans - could learn from that.
Hmm...he was sick after peaking for indoor world champs 2022, outdoor world champs 2023, and also Monaco a couple of weeks before he left for the Olympics 2021. That to me, is actually a pretty damning record for 'peaking well' for champs.
He has been running far more champs than that (and Monaco is not a such, and he wasn’t sick, he was recovering after sickness, and didn’t all that bad). -Yes, he was sick in two champs, but not in 2016 (3 different), 2017 (2), 2018 (3), 2019 (4), 2021 (3), 2022 (3), 2023 (1). -I haven’t included Nationals or Youth Worlds (would easily double the number of champs if I did): Well 19 healthy 2 sick..!
In the '54 Vancouver "Miracle Mile" Bannister ran with a conspicuously heavy cold. He won and ran his fastest ever time. He made no mention of his cold yet according to the definition offered here he ran with a "sickness". Landy, whom he beat, gashed his foot the night before on a broken light bulb. He made no mention of it after the race but said "the better man won on the day". Ingebrigtsen - and his fans - could learn from that.
In 2017 Jakob won Euro U20 with a cold (probably not bodily affected apart from his voice). -He mentioned nothing about it -just like your hero…
I don't buy Jakob's excuses but this is wrong. One can have a cold, having a sore throat, a headache. That's being sick. Being sick doesn't have to be anything more dramatic.
I once had an interval training session where I felt like sht, and every interval stretch went a sec or two slower than usual. But I did the whole session. When I came home I measured undoubtedly fever, and my sinuses started to hurt. Well, I wasn’t very sick (no sick leave, no extra bed time), but I skipped training a few days, and felt I should have aborted the first session too… (Guess,I wasn’t sicker than Jakob -he reported “dizzy all day” in the hours before the 5000m, and ran like a puzzy -totally against his 2023 shape and racing strategy…).
Thought this thread was going to be about Wightman…
Anyhow the interesting thing about Jake’s 2022 is not that he had some storybook buildup before Eugene. He definitely PBed nicely indoors, but then struggled early outdoors with some mediocre 800s and an injury around the mile vs Jakob where he got smoked. Rabat was solid of course (3:32, good kick). But the thing you’d say about his season was the timing was immaculate. He was just good enough at British Trials and then lights out from Worlds to the DL Final. 2:13.8 1K 1:43.65 800. So this year it sounds like his fitness/training has been great per his Dad, but can he nail the timing like he did and does a more stacked British field contribute to the challenges?
In the '54 Vancouver "Miracle Mile" Bannister ran with a conspicuously heavy cold. He won and ran his fastest ever time. He made no mention of his cold yet according to the definition offered here he ran with a "sickness". Landy, whom he beat, gashed his foot the night before on a broken light bulb. He made no mention of it after the race but said "the better man won on the day". Ingebrigtsen - and his fans - could learn from that.
In U20 Worlds 2018 Jakob was very close to winning the 5000m (so were 4-5 others, among them Barega and Kiplimo). But he had to settle with bronze, after a chaotic last lap (lapping other runners) where he (and maybe others) was hindered by near collisions and zigzags running. So what would a chronic sore looser done in Jakob’s place -he would have claimed he lost because of the chaos…! But Jakob didn’t!! He was visibly pleased with bronze, and seemed to understand that the chaos was a part of the game, and the same for everybody…
In the '54 Vancouver "Miracle Mile" Bannister ran with a conspicuously heavy cold. He won and ran his fastest ever time. He made no mention of his cold yet according to the definition offered here he ran with a "sickness". Landy, whom he beat, gashed his foot the night before on a broken light bulb. He made no mention of it after the race but said "the better man won on the day". Ingebrigtsen - and his fans - could learn from that.
In 2017 Jakob won Euro U20 with a cold (probably not bodily affected apart from his voice). -He mentioned nothing about it -just like your hero…
But he does mention it when loses. Of course he does. He got beaten by "the next guy".
This post was edited 4 minutes after it was posted.