Mr. Renato Canova: Can You Comment About Kenenisa Bekele and His New World Records???????????????????????????????

He was just born better and then there are the doctors in Holand associate with certain agents!

Big Dog

Colin O'Tiernan wrote:

You have an incredible knowledge. Do you think Bekele's marks are of training?

Kenyans have the same advantages as Bekele; altitude, diet, activity in youth, etc.

Why can Bekele crush them all?

Im not Canova, but my feeling is that every once in a while, a complete freak (in a good way) comes along. When this person has everything go optimally for them, this makes a superior athlete. Just that combo of huge natural talent, total dedication, and great training. And I guess performance enhancers cant ever be ruled out, but in my book, your innocent untill proven guilty. and if he is on drugs, hes still absolutely amazing.

canova has purportedly been driven from this board in disgust.

It's like a lottery thing. The molecules are all randomly rearanged in different ways to give you various results.

In that way, Bekele is a statistical oddity. We must view him as a freak of nature. LOL

genuine draft wrote:

canova has purportedly been driven from this board in disgust.

why???

too many ridiculous/vulgar posts. feels there is no respect whatsoever. feels like he is only wasting his time. his athletes are in full swing for the euro season.

oh okay, thought you meant he'd been banned.

How you can see, I'm still in this post, of course, when I'm at home. I was in Ostrava, inside the track, at 200m (while Jos Hermens was on the finish line) for giving his splits to Kenenisa and my athletes. Kenenisa is absolutely a phenomenon out of every rule. Gebre was not a phenomenon, but a top runner with a phenomenal brain. He was the first Ethiopian able to understand the modern athletic, very different from the past, when athletes can prepare and compete only for 2-3 events during a season. The secret of Gebre was his continuity in training. In training, you never have to replace some type of workout, but always to add something. Gebre (his first competition, when was 16 years old, was a full marathon in Addis Abeba, where he finished n. 99 with 3:06) add speed to resistance, and resistance to his speed, using a correct modulation that allowed him to run 3:31 in 1500 and 2:06 in marathon (till now...). He was the best example for young Ethiopians. His presence in Ethiopian athletics is fundamental. He has charisma, and every one follows his example. When, in 2001, he was operated and lost the most part of the season in training, also the other Ethiopian runners were not able to prepare, running very bad. But in that year, the new generation emerged. Bekele, Sihine and Gebremariam (also if this one, officially born in 1984, is 2-3 years older than Bekele...) began to train with the some seriousness and perseverance of Gebre. In Kenya, nobody (except Shaheen and Kipchoge) had the same mentality.

I have the example of Nicholas Kemboi, my athlete that last year was able, in two months with me in St. Moritz, to move from 28:19 to 26:30. Being so young, it's not possible that in two months he could already reach his top. So, what Nicholas has less than Bekele ?

The values that I said before : perseverance, professionalism and seriousness. Nicholas is very serious, but to be serious in your life doesn't mean to be serious in training. Bekele, after winning World Championships, soon had in his mind the focus of beating the World Records of Gebre, didn't lose time, and used the winter for improving in his qualities. Nicholas, after his 26:30, relaxed till one month ago, always running, but NEVER TRAINING. There is a very big difference between TO RUN and TO TRAIN. If you don't stimulate your body, you cannot improve, neither to keep the same conditions. Adaptation is the main enemy of improvement.

So, the big difference is the mentality. Ethiopians are FULLY PROFESSIONAL, building their life for athletics and organizing every thing for improving their results. Kenyans are PROFESSIONAL ONLY DURING THE PERIOD OF THE RACES, losing many months every year for following their business at home, that nothing have to do with athletics and disturb them very much.

About the possibility of Bekele, believe me, he is still very far from his top. In Ostrava was windy, and his first half was normal. I think that in two years is really possible for him running under 26:00.

He has not the change of speed of the young Gebre or of Yifter, but seems to Viren in his final progression. His threshold is the higher all time. He has a natural hematocrite of 49%, while Gebre had 41%. He is technically perfect, and is very strong in his muscles.

But his main quality is his recovery. After a very tough workout, he can have only one day of easy run, then is able to work again two days later.

And who speaks about drugs is ridicolous, because he doesn't know anything about Africans. I repeat, my athletes (Shaheen, Hassan, Paul Kosgei, Nicholas Kemboi, James Kwalia, Moses Mosop, Rodgers Rop, Julius Nyamu, John Korir, Robert Kipchumba, Selina Kosgei, Dorcus Inzikuru and many other) eat only ugali, vegetables and meat, and drink only milk, water and orange. Never one of them asked me something about integrators. They have their power in the self confidence to be strong and to be able to train hard recovering naturally. And Ethiopians are harder than them.....

Anyway, remember one new name for the future : Wilson Busienei, from Uganda, already 27:29 in Hengelo. Look at his career, and can see like not only Kenyans and Ethiopians can reach the top.

I agree with most of what you said, but I think Geb is fundementally and tactically better than Kenennisa. I had posted that I thought that K could run under 2:20 if the weather and pacing was correct. I'm wondering if he had gone through a 13:10 and had a rabbit for another couple of laps what he could of done.

Again when there is someone who come along with great improvement we think--drugs. We look at the marks from the Chinese women and thought the same. But, now people are running close to those marks and like in the marathon even better. I think there is much more to understanding the human psyche and how it can overwhelm the body to accoplish amazing things.

Renato,

Welcome back. Your messages are interesting and refreshing.

It will be exciting to see the 10000 meters approach and then surpass 26:00 minutes.

Can you imagine, a 25:xx 10k.

When 27 was broken, an article in RW stated the opinion we would certainly never see a sub 26 10k.

But how times change.

It is now very likely we will see this in our lifetimes.

Mr. Canova,

where you in Bergen this weekend at the Golden League meeting?

What do you think about the two "white hopes", Mottram (13.03) and Bakken (13.08), is it possible for them to take an olympic medal??

Cragg will kick Bakken's ass, if not this year then next.

renato, great to see you back. obviously, i was given some bad information from my mate.

Great post, Renato. Thanks for posting.

Sure and I thank you Mr. Canova. It's a fine coach you are.

No This year I think - And will probably kick Mottrams as well

If craggs target is to beat mottram and be the top 'white' runner then he will never reach his potential even if he succeeds in this goal.

Why should he focus on such an absurd target? More importantly why do you?

The only colours that matter in athletics are gold, silver and bronze.

Thank you, Mr. Canova, for all of your interesting posts.

You say that you think Kenenisa could potentially run under 26 minutes for 10k. I was considering this on my run this morning and wondering this: if Kenenisa Bekele, nothing more than a dedicated genetic anomaly, can run that fast for that long, then what is the ultimate limit of human performance at that distance? It seems impossible that a human could ever run under 13 minutes for 10k, but the same was once thought of for 5k in as much time. In short, how fast can the ideal human go?

OK, this is dumb, but here goes. People will improve by going faster, longer, but won't be able to improve much on top end speed (100 m times (without drugs) really haven't improved much in 40 years). It takes 10 seconds for the fastest humans to run 100 meters, if they can hold that pace for 10000m it will take 1000 seconds, then you have a 16:40 10000m.

Yep, that's the limit. 16:40.

I vote for myself for dumb post of the day.