STRANGER THING

THE 800M IS MORE ABOUT SPEED THAN STAYING POWER, SAYS BOL

PETER Bol calls the 800m a strange race where in a couple of strides it can get stranger.

That’s what happened in the final at the world championships for the Australian. He likes to push to the front early, but after slightly missing the kick he was in no-man’s land.

With Plan A out, he switched to Plan B and C, but in the changing nature of his event Bol was never able to get into the race.

He says the 800m is now more like two 400m races.

More speed than endurance, more emphasis on the one-lap expertise than the 1500m, which has traditionally been the close relation.

“It was a strange final, and in the 800m you never know what is going to happen,” Bol said after his seventhplaced finish in Eugene, Oregon.

“The 800m is a strange race ... and you only have one move to make.

“You go out with a plan, but the plan never goes accordingly, so you have got to be able to adjust to different plans through different sections of the race.

“I usually go out and try to push, but other people do the same thing. You get pushed around a bit, and it takes it a little bit out of you.”

Bol’s natural style is to lead from the front, as he did successfully at the Tokyo Olympics last year when he won his semifinal and then finished a gutsy fourth in the final.

He calls it the “safest” place to avoid trouble with falls.

But he knows he can’t be a one-trick pony, and has spent the earlier part of the season sitting in different positions during races. “During the season I tried different strategies. I sat at the back and came home stronger, sat in the middle, and it was all pretty consistent, finishing top two, top three,” he said.

“The difference is with the championships in the 800m, you’ve got 48 people in the world, and it gets knocked down to eight people. “Everyone else in that final has a kick, everyone has been working on the same things, if not better. So I’m not disappointed in any way of how we performed (in Eugene) or anything like that - I just think those guys were better.”

Bol, who lowered his Australian record to 1min 44.00sec in June, points out that the world champion, Kenya’s Emmanuel Korir, can run 44 seconds for the 400m - which is better than anyone else in the 800m game.

“He (Korir) is the fastest guy in the field, so it is hard to beat in a kick-down, which means I guess the answer to getting better is speed,” Bol says. “Endurance I’ve improved on, I ran a seven-second PB in the 1500m, but I think the 800m is a raw speed event these days — it’s two 400m races. To be better, you have to be better at the speed more so than the endurance, so next year you’ll see me doing more 400m races.”

So does he have the speed to win the Commonwealth title?

Korir won’t be there as he’s only entered in the 400m in Birmingham, while Canada’s bronze medallist from the world championships, Marco Arop, isn’t attending.

Kenya’s two other finalists from Eugene will be there - fourth place getter Emmanuel Wanyonyi and defending Commonwealth champion Wycliffe Kinyamal, who finished behind Bol. There is also a chance world 1500m champion Jake Wightman comes back to the 800m.

“While the top couple aren’t running at the Commonwealth Games, it doesn’t make it any easier,” Bol says. “That’s what makes the 800m so competitive and interesting.

“If I ever had to bet in any event, it wouldn’t be the 800m. It would be the last event I would bet on.

“It’s so strange, I mean I’m in better shape than last year, but I finished better (in Tokyo) last year.”