Asbel Kiprop wins the Dream Mile at 50th Bislett Games
Patient Asbel Kiprop gets rewarded, Souleiman’s 3:44 go-for-it effort gets punished
From LetsRun.com
Asbel Kiprop secured his first Diamond League victory of 2015 in 3:51.45 as Ayanleh Souleiman couldn’t hold on after going out aggressively (1:53.48 at 800). Souleiman went in with the goal of running 3:44, but he struggled to keep the extremely fast pace up once the rabbits dropped out at 1000m and ultimately didn’t have enough to kick for the win. The final 100 meters were very exciting as five men — Kiprop, Souleiman, Silas Kiplagat, Ronald Kwemoi and Belgium’s Pieter-Jan Hannes — were all in the mix coming off the final turn, but ultimately Kiprop was able to open up a gap and sprint to the win.
The Race
The early stages of the race were reminiscent of the women’s 1500 earlier in the meet as Souleiman was the only one to go through the pacers, hitting 400 meters in 55.48 and 800 in 1:53.48, giving him a lead of 12 meters over the chase pack, led by Kiplagat (Kiprop was in third).
The final rabbit stepped off at 1000 meters and at that point it was up to Souleiman to do what Muir did and finish a wire-to-wire victory. However, Souleiman’s lead wasn’t nearly as big as Muir’s and by the time Souleiman hit 1200 in 2:53.50 (60.02 lap), Kiplagat, Kiprop and Norway’s Henrik Ingebrigtsen were right behind him with much of the pack in striking distance just behind them.
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