O Lionaird leaves Oregon Project for OTC.

he is got a cool mullet cut!

I think everyone knew right off the bat that Salazar wasn't ideal for him, it was just a way to get his foot in the Nike door. Ask yourself, would he have been able to get a Nike sponsorship and into Rowland's group without being with Salazar first? The kid is smart.

Ooooh look at you with your edgy opinion. He absolutely would have gotten sponsorship from somewhere.

He ran 3:34 and was a World finalist.

However he was struggling for money maybe OTC was able to get him some cash...

If Steve was my coach I would leave too

Haha now that funny... I agree!!

O WHO?? wrote:

However he was struggling for money maybe OTC was able to get him some cash...

You realize that all the money is in Portland. The OTC begs for $$ from Portland.

What was AlSal thinking in hiring that dude??? Didn't work out for webby either....

Maybe Salazar could get him a better deal than he otherwise would have received. But a 3:34 guy from the US or Kenya would probably get a deal and a 3:34 guy from a smaller country like Ireland would be guaranteed some sort of deal.

I'd leave too if two 26:4x guys were kicking my butt in training.

I sometimes wonder if he hires milers to help his 5k - 10 runners work on their speed.

No I did not know that very interesting....why do you think he left???

Webb actually ran pretty well under Salazar

His contract wouldn't have changed. It would be the same Nike contract that he signed last fall, just different coaches. He also was getting a grant from Athletics Ireland.

If anything I think that he liked the concept of the team environment in Eugene (gathered that from the article) and the fact that he'd be training with other like minded middle distance types.

He's slated to race the 1500 next Friday and Rupp and Farah will be in the same race, so it should be a good one depending on how his achilles has been treating him.

Salazar is a good coach for distances but he doesn't have much of a record for improving athletes running the 1500. At the OTC there are a number of 1500 guys and Rowland is a steeple/middle distance guy. Rowland is also an extroverted Brit and maybe a better fit in personality and culture, so it probably works out all around.

interesting move. what is the motivation? was alsal not paying attention to him or just not working him the way he should? did alsal kick him out because he wasnt performing up to standard? who knows

Steve Magness was coaching him, not AlSal. It seems like Salazar gets the top tier Oregon Project runners and Steve gets the handful of second-tier guys like O'Lionaird and that one girl. Funny that a 3:34 can be second-tier, but that's the Oregon Project for you. I guess the coaching just wasn't working out. I have my own opinions on Steve Magness' coaching philosophy, but we'll see if Mad Len has anything to say about that in the next few days.

Interesting turn of events indeed...Hopefully O'Lionaird, Rupp and Farah all race that 1500m at Oxy, will be interesting to see how the race turns out between OTC Elite, the Oregon Project and the Nike Project.

Doesn't Magness also coach Jackie Areson??? Are those 2 dating, seems O'Lionaird really didn't have a coach and get much attention....

i think steve magness coaches jackie areson and lindsay allen - steepler.