smile wrote:
He does no more than necessary to win. He never tries to run fast. Just sits and kicks. Lest anyone get the panties in a bunch, this is not an attack on him, but just an observation of the similarities between the two. Both could improve their 5k & 10k PRs if they truly committed to a fast pace. For whatever reason though, they are content to merely win (which is still very impressive).
One major issue with this. There are a number of runners who have vastly superior PRs to Farah, and throughout his career, have likely capable of running much faster times in any given race (ex. Gebrmeskel, Koech, etc.).
There are no NCAA athletes who are the equivalent of that for Cheserek. When Lawi Lalang left, no distance runners remained who were actually capable of running times faster than Cheserek's PRs.
Sure, there's a few mid-distance guys who may be able to run faster 1500m/mile times, but when push came to shove and Yorks tried to use the "fast race" tactic in the DMR championship, Cheserek answered, left him in the dust, and ran a time faster than his PR.