In another pedestrian 1500m final in Rio Charlie Grice just did not have the legs in the sprint for the finish and finished down the field. To make any Olympic final however is a tremendous achievement.
In a typical championship 1500m final, Matt Centrowitz held off all of the favourites to take the Olympic title in 3.50.00, with Briton Charlie Grice (Jon Bigg) finishing twelfth in 3.51.73.
You could throw a blanket over the whole field throughout, especially over the first couple of laps, the field passing 800m in a leisurely 2.16. In the end if came down to a 400m burn-up, with American Centrowitz controlling things from the front, a 50.62 last lap keeping the field at bay.
Grice gave himself a chance, passing the bell in seventh, but despite a 1.45 800m personal best this season he didn’t quite have the speed to contend for a medal in his first Olympic final.
“I’m very happy to be here but was hoping to perform a bit better than that. It was very pushy and ‘shovey’ as always and I think I kind of panicked a bit and was surging, but my legs just didn’t have it today. I think they’re pretty tired from the qualification rounds.
“But still, I can hold my head high because apart from the Spanish guy I was the only European in that race. I am now kind of hungry for more because these kind of races I'm normally quite good at, but the last bit I didn’t quite have it in my legs today.
“The plan was to stay on the rail again to run the shortest line and stay out of trouble but I felt that I needed to be far out there because it was beyond slow and any gaps that happened would stay that way and we can all run a 52 second last lap. So, it was about who could run the shortest line and not be pushing and shoving.
“I thought it would be a little quicker especially as there were a few Kenyans and Moroccans in there. I’d have liked it to be quicker, but you need to turn up and be prepared for any kind of race and I will come back stronger because of this.”
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