The kickers always win

There's a term in running called a "kick", which refers to the ability to sprint at the end of an endurance-oriented race.

Often it leads to anger amongst other competitors, who felt it unfair that they had to lead in front the whole race only to be overtaken the last meters.

Yesterday I was watching the final of 1500m running in the Paris Olympic, and Jakob Ingebrigtsen led the race about 1400m out of the 1500m, but ended up forth. Some might say that it was a bad strategic choice, but I believe he knew there were too many other runners in the field with a better kick than himself, so he had to rely on the overall pace of the race. He needed to get rid of the kickers earlier in the race by pushing hard all the way through, to avoid the end sprint.

I'm by no means a professional runner, but from my understanding the value of having a good kick is underestimated.

Nobody cares if you lead the whole race.

The kickers always win.

Read more about Kickers on wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kick_(running)