Hayward is an imposing stage for a championship. It calls for efforts to match it. On Monday, there was no more classroom, no more testing tactics to simulate a future race. No more trialing.  What we want, in any race is for athletes to have the guts to play their best hand, to raise the game with their actions and make the winner execute on another level. Nuguse went to the front to use his strength, driving the pace to weed out Cinderellas and expose the contenders. He’d done this before, but when it came to the third lap, he’d gotten skittish and let the pace lag. Not this time. From 700m to 1000m, he ran 56.9.  Passing 1200m in 2:51, 10 men began to move behind him, closing any gaps that had formed as they approached 200m to go.  Hocker is known for his wild stretch finishes, with a final 100m as good as anyone. In 2021, he ate up a 5m gap to Centro at the top of the straight and passed him to claim victory.  With a hard pace, the expectation was that he’d move late if h...