I think I've said many a time that one of my (many) hobbies is calling (and producing) the livestreams of HS track meets. I had the pleasure of calling Juliette Whittaker's national HS record indoor 1000m run at the Ocean Breeze facility on Staten Island. Juliette just ran 1:57.76 in the semis of the 800, a personal best. That's unreal. She got boxed in and could have run faster, IMO. Not a medal contention time, but so happy for her to make the finals. If you watched the trials, you'd have seen the best in the word and defending gold medalist, the US's Athing Mu (who I met as a shy teenager years ago), fall... so she's absent. Keely Hodgkinson of GB will win it.
The men's 1500 is the race to watch. I'm a big Josh Kerr fan of GB over Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway... but I also love Cole Hocker and Yared Nuguse for the US. Kessler just shocked me with how well he did. In the finals, I expect Nuguse to continue his strategy of heading for the front and leading everyone around. At some point Ingebrigtsen will pass him with Kerr on his heels... then Kerr will outkick him to gold. That's his M.O. Nuguse will hang on for third.
BTW, I don't like the way Noah Lyles has been starting his 100s. I said the same about Sha'Carri, who never recovered. Good starts are hard to overcome. Seville looked amazing, so has to be the favorite. I think Lyles will (also) take second with Thompson third. I hope not. I hope Noah brings it.
- Jeff |
