Last year on the very same course Bekele ran 28:14, Tadesse ran 28:24, and Ritz ran 29:02. So, Bekele ran 32 seconds faster than last year, Tadesse ran 41 seconds faster, and Ritz ran 68 seconds faster. Of course, given different course conditions, it's near impossible to compare one year to the next, however, if this year was not fast, as you say, last year must have been a bit slow. Yet, Bekele beat Tadesse, the man who would go on to beat him in Mobassa, by 10 seconds. Moreover, this was the first time Bekele faced Tadesse in cross county since he lost to him. Don't you think Bekele would be interested not just in beating him, but in crushing him (yes, I know he beat him at 10,000 in Osaka, but beating him in track is not beating him in an event in which he beat you)? Finally, and forgive me because I don't intend to be rude, but to say by how much time Bekele would have won had he been going all out the whole way bespeaks an arrogance born only of ignorance.
Mrr82 wrote:
hahahahhuhu wrote:He was 18 seconds ahead of Jorge Torres, whose 10000m PB is about 10 seconds slower...seems like a normal performance."A fast, tough race" could also mean that the last lap was very fast and tough.
exactly. The race was NOT fast overall. Why do you think Ritz lost 14 seconds at the end? it wasn't because he faded that bad, it was because everyone else started racing. It's easy to tell because Bekele only won by a little. He'd have won by 20 seconds if he was going all out the whole way. That's always the easiest way to tell. Those other guys aren't 2618 10k runners, or far superior XC runners to Bekele. He just let them hang aruond most of the race before picking it up at the end.