by Larry Eder
Silas Kiplagat versus Asbel Kiprop, from Doha 2012; same as it ever was?
photo by PhotoRun.net
Last night, I asked Justin Lagat if he could give me his view of the 1,500 meters in Monaco from Friday night, July 18. Here is what he wrote:
Asbel Kiprop’s Strides vs Silas Kiplagat’s Finishing Kicks in Monaco, by Justin Lagat
The IAAF Monaco Diamond League this year was one meeting that I and many other track fans across the world were not going to miss. Almost all the events at this meeting were packed with the greatest runners who are currently on top of the world at their distances and it was promising to be a spectacular meeting.
As it had promised to be, the meeting indeed turned out to be one of the best events this year. Genzebe Dibaba and Ayana Almaz ran a blistering 5000m race that reminded me of Tirunesh Dibaba while she was in her peak days on the track. The men’s 800m race saw Amos Nijel of Botswana repeating the same feat he did in Eugene as he defeated a strong field that had Rudisha and Aman in it. The women’s version of the distance had a surprise too; Sum, who had surprised the world last year at the world championships, was surprised by an upstart, Ajee Wilson from the US.
However, of greater interest was Asbel Kiprop’s intended world record attempt in the men’s 1500m race. A few days to the meeting, he had stressed to his fans that it was going to be an “attempt” and that they should expect anything there.
“Attempting the world record doesn’t mean breaking the world record’ I’m here to attempt the world record. You might be disappointed if you don’t achieve but you’re doomed if you don’t try,” he had posted on his FaceBook wall.
The lineup of this event was perhaps the strongest ever assembled this year and included all the athletes with the highest diamond league points. They included Silas Kiplagat, Suleiman Ayanleh, Ronald Kwemoi and Nick Willis, among others.
For the first 800m, the pace-makers did a splendid job and Asbel looked well relaxed running just behind them. First 400m was crossed in 54.08, which was around one second slower than last year. 800m was crossed in 1:50.84, almost the same time split as that for last year. But, on the third lap, the pace was slowed down a bit and Asbel appeared to be undecided on whether to run past the pace-maker or to just stay there as he ran so close to the pace maker and almost moving to the outer lane. It was two seconds slower than last year’s time at 1200m as they crossed it in 2:47.49. Meanwhile, Silas Kiplagat who had been at the back used this lap to slowly move forward.
At the bell, Asbel Kiprop was on the lead an appeared poised to clinch the win. But with about 150 meters to go, as he rounded the last bend, he glanced at the big screen and looked a little surprised. Silas Kiplagat was already running just behind him. A battle ensued on the homestretch and Asbel could not hold on to the lead for long, it appeared that he had already ran out of the energy needed to answer to Kiplagat’s astonishing finishing kick.
The later went ahead to win in an impressive and historical time for the 1500m race; 3:27.64! This puts him as the fourth fastest in history over the distance. Kiprop came second in 3:28.45.
Silas Kiplagat and Asbel Kiprop’s rivalry and their dominance of the 1500m race has been there since 2010. But, Kiprop had been there before Kiplagat.
Their running styles are completely different with Kiprop, most of the time, ending up acting involuntarily as a pace-maker for Silas. Silas Kiplagat seems to have done his own research and knows that the only way to beat Kiprop was in executing a strong finishing kick.
For now, we can only wonder how long their dominance and rivalry in this event will continue, at the same time wondering how fast Asbel would run if he had the strong finishing kick of Silas Kiplagat, or how fast Silas would run if he had the long strides of Asbel Kiprop.
