Lukas Verzbicas wins ITU World Duathlon title and rips the running portion

road rashed wrote:

first 5k in 14:41 then bike then last 2.5k in 6:28 (4:11 pace). That's a fast kid!

http://onlineraceresults.com/race/view_race.php?race_id=12378&submit_action=select_result&order_by=default&group_by=default#racetophttp://usatriathlon.org/content/index/4428

I really doubt that that last portion was really 2.5k.

Most likely a short course.

Kid is about 20 years old. Total gypsy scam artist.

doubt it is a short course for the world championship. i am sure they have to be verified multiple ways.

road rashed wrote:

first 5k in 14:41 then bike then last 2.5k in 6:28 (4:11 pace). That's a fast kid!

http://onlineraceresults.com/race/view_race.php?race_id=12378&submit_action=select_result&order_by=default&group_by=default#racetophttp://usatriathlon.org/content/index/4428

Lukas Verzbicas wins ITU World Duathlon title and rips the running portion

The typical way for triathletes to report a race result. He wins JUNIOR race.

Anyway, he is a pretty good runner and both distance and time are probably right.

Well...the senior race was 10k and 5k with Jarrod Shoemaker running 30:30s and then 13:52, so it was most likely short. I don't think Jarrod has ever run 13:52 for a track 5k. It is often the case that the distances run are legit, but the mats for timing are not in the correct spots in triathlons and Duathlons. This is probably what happened. In any case both Jarrod and Lukas won, which is great.

Triathlon and probably Duathlon distances can be +-10% so it is 4500-5500 and 2250-2750. I think the 5k is about right but the 2.5k probably a bit short since nearly the whole field was a lot faster on the second run.

Tri/du courses are usually short for the run. It doesn't even matter the level of competition. I saw a result from an official ITU event where the the winner of the race ran a 27:xx 10k. Complete bullshit. There's no doubt that the competitors are amazing endurance athletes. But the people who measure these out need to do it right. No stupid 10% rule. That being said, I look forward to seeing what Lukas does in xc this fall. He's definitely built for running, and even though running at the elite level is 1000 times more competitive than in the triathlon, I just don't know how much power he can produce on the bike if he stays so thin. But he looks amazing when he runs. Just a naturally fluid form and I think he could be a great 10k guy on the track, even if he has to go up against the East Africans.

road rashed wrote:

doubt it is a short course for the world championship. i am sure they have to be verified multiple ways.

Guess he should hop on the track and break Bob Kennedy's 3k record within the next couple weeks then, right?

R.L. Scribner wrote:

Guess he should hop on the track and break Bob Kennedy's 3k record within the next couple weeks then, right?

No..... but Lukas has the freshman national record in the track 5k, set last year and is a sub 9 3200 track runner.

He is good but not as good as those splits in the Duatholon would lead to.

Just Tri and Stop Me wrote:

Triathlon and probably Duathlon distances can be +-10% so it is 4500-5500 and 2250-2750. I think the 5k is about right but the 2.5k probably a bit short since nearly the whole field was a lot faster on the second run.

This is an oft-cited reason for fast triathlon times, yet no one seems to be able to prove it. Please cite the rule from the course measurement rule book that proves this.

A few years back, the world championships in triathlon messed up the run (ran too few circuits); they did this 2x. Embarrassing.

Even as a triathlon fan, I take the times with a grain of salt.

A review of the rule book and RD pages showed nothing about the distance being certified (unlike USATF procedures that are quite involved).

Haha. High school triathlete beats all high school runners at their own game. I love it!

7:45.6 3k pace for 2.5k, after running a 5k and cycling.

All at age 16 or 17. oh, very credible. Maybe he'll get the world junior 3k record next year.

Lukas has run:

14:18 track 5k

8:53 2 mile

All as a freshman in highschool.

He is a sophomore now - class of 2012

His triathlon/duathlon times are bogus, anyone with a brain knows this.

The kid is a freak though.

He's a year old for his class, but there's no doubt he will be on the level of our best recent high school distance runners before he graduates.

His first 5k should be just about 50-75m short. The 2.5k would be about 300 meters short. The 2nd 5k for the elite race was 350-400m short. Im guessing I ran 13:52 + 65-70 seconds, so about 14:57-15 flat which sounds about right... wish I could say I ran sub 14.

The race was inside Lowe's Motor Speedway, which was pretty amazing, but made it tough for them to make the distances accurate because of the turns.

Why do so many people hate this kid?

Is it because he is good and those that flame him are not?

You are dumb. Everybody admires Lukas. We're just making fun of tris.

just asking wrote:

Why do so many people hate this kid?

Is it because he is good and those that flame him are not?

just asking wrote:

Why do so many people hate this kid?

Is it because he is good and those that flame him are not?

I don't think anyone "hates" this kid. I think most of us would rather see a homegrown U.S. runner do well instead of a foreigner whose age can't be verified.