Lagat won! although you wouldn't know it...

What are you talking about?

There are several threads with "Lagat" in the title.

If you had a good collegiate runner competing at HS meets and winning (racing tactically, never assuming the lead until it was time to kick), would you expect thousands of praises for his performances?

Lagat is simply better than what the US is capable of at the time. It IS expected that he win and no, it's not impressive that a 3:26 guy can outkick our 5k-10k specialists in a slow race. At all.

He's a great runner but come on, there's no need to praise the smartest guy in the special class.

Saul Goodman wrote:

He's a great runner but come on, there's no need to praise the smartest guy in the special class.

So the approach should be to praise the special kids in the special class? Like who? Brown?

If you'd rather talk about the also-rans than the winner, get ready for a long chat when everyone but Lagat is gets stomped at Daegu.

There aren't so many threads about Lagat winning because it wasn't very newsworthy. The fact of him winning and the nature of his win were exactly what everyone new was going to happen.

Saul Goodman wrote:

If you had a good collegiate runner competing at HS meets and winning (racing tactically, never assuming the lead until it was time to kick), would you expect thousands of praises for his performances?

Lagat is simply better than what the US is capable of at the time. It IS expected that he win and no, it's not impressive that a 3:26 guy can outkick our 5k-10k specialists in a slow race. At all.

He's a great runner but come on, there's no need to praise the smartest guy in the special class.

Lagat isn't a 3:26 guy anymore. More like 3:31, and his continuing to win isn't just based on speed.

Some Coked Up Brit wrote:

There aren't so many threads about Lagat winning because it wasn't very newsworthy. The fact of him winning and the nature of his win were exactly what everyone new was going to happen.

OK. By your logic, nobody will be covering Bolt in Daegu. Thanks for explaining this to me.

Lagat's win just straight up wasn't impressive. Just ONCE I would like him to take the lead in a race where there's a chance of him losing and just go for broke. I mean, I can't blame him for racing the way he does since obviously the goal is to win and it's the best way to do that. But here's a good question, if Lagat had took over the pacing duties with a mile to go instead of Solinsky would Solinsky been able to outkick him in the last 100 meters? It would have made for a more interesting race and I bet you Lagat would get his praise if he still won.

He took the lead at the beginning. But then people went around him.

Lagat's win not impressive??? Dude he ran his last 1600 meters in 3:57!

Agree wrote:Lagat's win just straight up wasn't impressive. Just ONCE I would like him to take the lead in a race where there's a chance of him losing and just go for broke.

You want track to be a different sport. The way championship track works is that the guy who can outkick everyone else in a tactical race waits as long as possible to run hard and the rest of the field is left to weigh the odds of winning wire-to-wire v. hoping that someone else will share the lead. No rational runner would do it any differently from Lagat until someone proved that he could no longer win that way.

By the way, that is what happened to make Lagat move up to 5000 meters. Solinsky will have his chances in Europe to face off against Lagat without running from the front. My hunch is that he won't fare much better that way. Then again, he doesn't have to fare too much better. That was a world class challenge.

the smartest letsrunner wrote:

Some Coked Up Brit wrote:

There aren't so many threads about Lagat winning because it wasn't very newsworthy. The fact of him winning and the nature of his win were exactly what everyone new was going to happen.

OK. By your logic, nobody will be covering Bolt in Daegu. Thanks for explaining this to me.

No, people will be covering Bolt in Daegu because Bolt is a celebratory. Lagat isn't a celebratory.

No, people will be covering Bolt in Daegu because Bolt is a celebratory. Lagat isn't a celebratory.[/quote]

What's a celebratory? Is it where celery does experiments?

Some Coked Up Brit wrote:

the smartest letsrunner wrote:

OK. By your logic, nobody will be covering Bolt in Daegu. Thanks for explaining this to me.

No, people will be covering Bolt in Daegu because Bolt is a celebratory. Lagat isn't a celebratory.

Sad but true. If Gay was the world's fastest man, he wouldn't get as much attention as Bolt does because Gay's personality is quite boring. Lagat doesn't get any publicity by the general public because nobody cares about distance running but distance runners themselves. And everyone here on letsrun knows how dominant Lagat is, so there aren't many threads about him because its expected for him to win.

I hope Lagat will test positive for drugies soon. It took so long for that African girl to test positive after her incredible performances are age 38.

Saul Goodman wrote:

He's a great runner but come on, there's no need to praise the smartest guy in the special class.

the smartest letsrunner wrote:

So the approach should be to praise the special kids in the special class? Like who? Brown?

If you'd rather talk about the also-rans than the winner, get ready for a long chat when everyone but Lagat is gets stomped at Daegu.

Clearly not the smartest guy in the special class. But is probably still the smartest letsrunner.

Do we need to revisit the "Lagat raped Solinsky" thread?