Originally posted by Ernst Klaas
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That then leaves the 4th spot between Peeters & Saalberg. Whilst Peeters has absolutely proven herself here at the NCs, there's no doubt about it, you have to look at running order and strategy. Where does she fit in? One assumes Lieke will be on leg 1 in Istanbul, presumably with a lead, & IMO you don't want to relinquish that in the first 100m like Peeters might, by going out too slowly. My fear is she will get swamped early & not recover. Saalberg will go out harder. It's clear she will also finish slower than Peeters, but the hope & tactic is that less people will overtake her at the end of her leg than would overtake Peeters at the start of her leg. The Eugene heats are also still on my mind. Even when she recovered from dropping the baton, and was still in reach of 3rd place, Peeters faded badly to 7th & ran an awful 56 leg. Stressed or not, that was terrible. So I would be reluctant to put her straight into a Champs 4x4 final without seeing her on a smaller stage.
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