Let Us Introduce You To The 21 Yr Old Robertson Twins of NZ - Been Living In Kenya For 4 Yrs Training To Be World's Best

first off, the level if immaturity on this thread is quite high.

Second, I think this is an awesome story, and have always wondered what doing something like this could do for me. It's obviously worked with these guys, I hope they continue to train their butts off and succeed, it is obvious they are extremely dedicated, and deserve any success that they get.

I had heard of the Robertsons prior to this article and thread. I don't believe either of them has run <13:20, on the track or the roads. There is no way that level of performance (a World Championships A standard) would go unnoticed, no matter where it took place.

no, try a different browser

works for me on safari on a mac, maybe you need a certain plugin?

I got it to work with Firefox 3.6.15. Click on the vid. If you don't see an image with the two brothers, then your browser is blocking something. You have to allow vimeo.com and vimeocdn.com. The second .com is evidently where vimeo.com stores their videos.

It also works in the Chrome browser. You have to click on the flash vid first, then you'll see a play arrow at the bottom left. Click the arrow and the vid plays.

To the two guys going back and forth about something basically unrelated to this thread, I have deleted your back and forth as many visitors are finding this story to be interesting but don't want to have to read about you two arguing back and forth.

Just click on the image. If you see the image the vid should be there. You might have to click on the play arrow (in the flash box) to play. If you see two bars, something like this ||, then the vid is playing. If you see a white arrow point to the right then the vid is not playing. Click on the arrow.

The arrow and || only show up when you slide your mouse across the picture of the brothers.

These guys were talented in NZ but nothing to suggest the level that hey are achieving right now. However Jake did run an incredible 5k at a young age. They were at a similar level to Hugo Beamish when they left NZ, Hugo instead went to Nova and ran 13:51 this season indoor, just missing nationals. There races have been impressive but more the place and how close they have come to some of the best in the world. The run through history was a great example of them mixing it up with the worlds best

Cool story. One thing: why are their "5K" times so much faster? Are they among the first runners in history whose road times are better than their track? Something's fishy with that (though the Belgrade race results back 'em up).

How easy would it be for a young American kid to just get up and leave the US and join a similar group in Kenya if they didn't have a contact like Shaheen?

These kids acted irresponsibly and praise should not be heaped at their feet. Instead they should be chastised for their actions.

make no mistake these guys made a ballsy move, they had virtually no contacts, and it was a very high risk scenario, but Kenyans are kind people and the Robertsons have a great work ethic and they have made it work.

Neither of these guys has run 13:20ish. Jake has run 13:32 on the track and suggestions of other times are all BS and Zane hasn't broken 14mins. Jake ran under 14:30 at 16yrs so showed extreme talent and Zane was running top 800m times for his age as a young junior too.

Nice and simple guys, but arrogant.

wiwi wrote:

Neither of these guys has run 13:20ish. Jake has run 13:32 on the track and suggestions of other times are all BS and Zane hasn't broken 14mins. Jake ran under 14:30 at 16yrs so showed extreme talent and Zane was running top 800m times for his age as a young junior too.

Nice and simple guys, but arrogant.

sounds like someone who used to get beat by the Robertsons.

nope, wrong, I'm much older but know their Coach in NZ well. These guys are great runners and will get a lot better and hopefully do well for NZ. But getting banned from NZ teams after their behaviour at Mombassa was not something that people from my era would think to highly of,

Did you say banned! How come then that they will be running 2011 World XC as selected members of the New Zealand team. And by the way, who precisely “was” their coach in NZ?

Big brass ones to follow a different path to the norm. Live the dream boys, we all hope you go well

I wouldnt say they are arrogant, but very passionate. I raced them a lot as a junior in new zealand and travelled to Japan for world cross in 2006 with jake where he placed about 46th i believe. At a very young age they were obsessed with running to the point were it was a little weird. They loved haile and el garrouge and knew everything about every african runner (pbs, workouts, races won etc) They were huge fans of everythng african (kenyan/ethiopian). Had all the kenyan/ethiopian running videos, listened to kenyan/ethiopian music, and ate kenyan/ethiopian food but they had their dreams and actually went out to achieve them which is something we have to give them a lot of credit for. In terms of times in nz they were good and showed a lot of talent. As well as running 14.16 fo 5k, jake also ran about 8.20 for the 3k whereas zane was more of a 15/800 guy. They have shown a huge improvement since moving to kenya with the view that to be the best they have to train with the best.

wiwi wrote:

...getting banned from NZ teams after their behaviour at Mombassa was not something that people from my era would think to highly of

Banned? For what?