Genzebe Targets 5K Indoor WR

Dibaba is an interesting athlete that's for sure. In our year end award voting, she's winning the overall vote for "Female Athlete of the Year" despite the fact she wasn't ranked #1 in any events by us.

http://www.letsrun.com/news/2015/01/vote-letsrun-coms-2014-year-end-awards/

And I agree with both. I voted for her as Female Athlete of the Year but didn't make her #1 in any event.

In a non-championship year, if you run 3:55 and 8:16, game over.

I really don't get why she's obsessed with the 5000. If I ran 3:55, I'd run the 1500. I think the WR attempt indoors makes sense. Get strong. See if you really can handle the 5000. If not, you can use that base to rip the 1500 outdoors.

She's popular for a few reasons. She uncommonly beautiful for one. She's got the legendary name thanks to big sis. And she really does have out of this world potential. But for her to reach superstar status I think she would need to stay at 1500

I thought she might have been avoiding Aregawi last year. In previous 2 seasons Aregawi completely dominated Genzebe. But in their one race last year Genze won (although Aregawi seemed to be hurting and Simpson ended up winning in that Stockholm thriller)

But I think it may have more to do with her wanting to follow in her sister's path. The thing is as great as Tiru is, she was never really suited for the 1500. Genzebe, on the other hand, is tailor made for that event. She has every tool needed to be a mile legend.

I think Genze has too much muscle mass to follow her sister into 10K. 5K is stretching it for her. But even that, last season Cherono wore her out. She's had a history of muscle cramping. But her speed in shorter races is sublime.

very suspicious performances last year imo, her outdoor performances just don't correlate at all with her indoor season. it was like watching a different athlete

I'm wondering if she's trying to take away all of Defar's WR, because of the long time rivalry between Meseret and Tirunesh.

I also think Genzebe is a great time trial runner not a racer, which requires strategy and ability to respond to your opponents moves, whereas Tirunesh is a great racer, the greatest female in long distances, IMO.

family feud? wrote:

I'm wondering if she's trying to take away all of Defar's WR, because of the long time rivalry between Meseret and Tirunesh.

I also think Genzebe is a great time trial runner not a racer, which requires strategy and ability to respond to your opponents moves, whereas Tirunesh is a great racer, the greatest female in long distances, IMO.

Good points. I agree with all of it. All of Genze's WR's last year she ran virtually alone.

I wouldn't say Genzebe isn't a great racer. She does have 2 world indoor titles and won 3 junior titles. Looks to be a good indoor season already!

The outdoor events need to be her priority. By focusing on indoors, she is costing herself the long base development that powers a long summer campaign in a world championship year. It was tremendous to see what she ran indoors last year, but how much greater would it be for her to challenge world records outdoors and win outdoor senior championships when everyone is at their peak? Rupp had this same problem two years ago when he ran 3:50.9i and maybe even last year was affected by this schedule of running extremely fast in January/February, then taking a break at just the point the others are really gearing up, and starting again in early April. Obviously, he ran a 4 second pr at 10k early and was competitive in the 5k, but he didn't break 13 or 3:50 or 7:30 outdoors, all of which he has the potential to do or do again.

Exactly

That's a good point, and I agree, but her sis and Defar and Haile all were able to destroy indoor records and still had no problem keeping their peak form outdoor year after year.

The question is, is she as good as them?

I think she can be, but at 1500, not at the higher distances.

sub02:30:00orbust wrote:

her outdoor performances just don't correlate at all with her indoor season.

As with many others like Rupp and Choge. It's the tracks. The bouncy banked techno tracks should be banned.