Brett Larner Makes Fun of Us and You for Freaking Out over Zane Robertson's 59:47 Half

Yeah, sounds like something Brett would do.

I'm ashamed to visit letsrun. It's like an African web site should write about a black hockey player just because he's black and spoke Swahili. I mean that would just be unthinkable.

Made me laugh, yall got rekt by him. And now you're just salty.

HA!

I never know if the LRC people know about these resources, or if they do, can they use this information for the right purposes, but the guy that beat Robertson has been running at a high level for 10 years.

See his progression here:

http://www.iaaf.org/athletes/kenya/paul-mutero-kuira-228691#progression

He has run the 5k and 10k at a consistently high level every year except 2009, and running mostly 27:40-50 and 13:22-35 each year. He ran his PR for 10k very recently with a 27:40 in Japan on 10/10/2014.

So, all of you thinking that Robertson is the next breakthrough non-African star, well, he probably has shown what he is already. All his PRs are from 2014 and he is likely just what his CV shows: ~13:13 / 27:40 type, perhaps 13:10 / 27:30 type at the best.

Nothing wrong with that. He will likely become, if not the best, the fastest 5k runner NZ has ever produced. A nation with a proud and strong distance running tradition. He is also capable of besting the 27:41 NR in the 10k.

It's the same thing when the French Sprinter broke 10.00 for the 100 and 20 for the 200. Its statistically significant when you compare origins of birth and running results. People like to be PC but a Kenyan breaking 60 and a white guy doing it very different when it comes to the magnitude of the accomplishment. Exact same thing should happen when a Japanese runner breaks 60 for the first time.

With the Kenyan doping issue, a fast Kenyan is just as tedious as a fast Jamaican.

We know the score.

wejo wrote:

Brett Larner has made a satirical post that took our story comparing Zane Robertson's 59:47 to Ryan Hall's 59:43 run and put in the name of Paul Kuira who actually won the race in his half-debut of 59:47.

It did make me chuckle.

http://japanrunningnews.blogspot.com/2015/02/paul-kuira-pulls-ryan-hall.html

We see Brett's point. As a result, we will no longer be posting about Yuki Kawauchi (who Brett travels with/serves as an agent for) on LetsRun.com :)

We also think Brett should shut his site down and only cover Kenyan and Ethiopian runners. The Japanese runners aren't good enough to warrant their own website.

Yours in running :)

And why didn't you mention Kuira, wejo?

holy sticking head in ground and being as pc as possible.

larner is basically saying that top talent between people of european descent and of east african descent are pretty much the same, so a white guy debuting sub 60 is no more meaningful than an east african doing so.

Which makes no sense of course when what - the top 50 marathoners in the world are east afrrican? top 75? I dunno but something like that.

it's a lame parody.

Also interesting to note that Paul Kuira ran this at age 16 ...

2006 3:46.64 Osaka 03 AUG for 1500m

2006 13:50.48 Tokorozawa 29 OCT for 5000m

2006 28:24.72 Kounosu 23 SEP

and this at age 18 ...

2008 3:44.21 Rifu 13 JUN

2008 13:43.26 Rifu 14 JUN

2008 27:51.92 Niigata 01 JUN

Like so many Kenyans (who conveniently have birthdays in January so they can remain eligible for Junior records in the year they "turn 20") it is too bad he was not born in the US, Canada or Europe. He would have been the greatest distance runner they had ever seen.

To those who believe that the age-cheating is just an accident or the fault of loose documentation, I wonder why, if somebody has to estimate their birthdate, why they never estimate HIGH?

For example, when a Kenyan or East African runs 7:50 / 13:30 why do they always say, "Well Paul (or Phillip or Moses or Philemon or Solomon or Joseph or Thomas or Leonard) you are running pretty well. I guess you are 16 now?"

Why not THINK THIS: "Nobody in the USA or Italy or England or Germany or Spain has ever run 13:30 at age 16, or even 17, so it makes NO SENSE that we have people running 12:53 indoors who are 17. You must be 22".

newname wrote:

To those who believe that the age-cheating is just an accident or the fault of loose documentation, I wonder why, if somebody has to estimate their birthdate, why they never estimate HIGH?

Because many in rural areas start school at a later age, since they lived far away and need to be able to make the hike. When they get their ID's their age was estimated by their class year. Most of them know if they are older than their official age, it's not like it's a mystery.

I assume you're kidding about what you will/will not post in the future. Brett's blog probably has 1/100th of the traffic of letsrun, so he's piggy backing for some pub.

To me, the Z Robertson story was about a shocking result, not second place. Fortunately for Kenyans, no namers running 1315/2700/sub 60 isn't exactly an unusual event.

Pretty much a non story between larner and Letsrun imo.

"who Brett travels with/serves as an agent for) on LetsRun.com"

So Yuki quit his job and is running 120 miles a week at altitude, and he's only going to peak for 2 marathons a year?

Great, I'm glad to see that Brett talked some sense into him.

Soft Kenyan wrote:

And why didn't you mention Kuira, wejo?

Because a Kenyan debuting in 59:47 is not as unusual as a Kiwi. Everyone on here was talking about Robertson's run not Kuira's.

If the Bahamas make the next World Cup and so does Germany on the same day I think more people will be talking about the Bahamas.

wejo wrote:

Soft Kenyan wrote:

And why didn't you mention Kuira, wejo?

Because a Kenyan debuting in 59:47 is not as unusual as a Kiwi. Everyone on here was talking about Robertson's run not Kuira's.

If the Bahamas make the next World Cup and so does Germany on the same day I think more people will be talking about the Bahamas.

I never even thought about Robertson. I just assumed that he'd been in Kenya long enough to get the drug cycling down pat.

I hope Brett sticks to writing as he's the most boring race commentator in the world.

One other thing that is worth pointing out is that with this performance, Robertson has shown that he is a medal threat in major championships, whereas Kuira almost certainly isn't. Why? Because if he keeps performing at that level, Robertson is very likely to make Olympic/WC teams for New Zealand. Kuira probably won't make any Kenyan national teams. Admittedly, the chances of Robertson medaling in the Olympics or World Champs are probably slim, but definitely better than someone who isn't there. And didn't he already win a Commonwealth Games medal? Sure, CGs are kind of second-tier (even though Kenya sends a team, so they're not that weak in the distance events), but they mean a lot to some countries.

Here is the deal. Larner covers Japanese running. Kuira moved to Japan as a teenager. That makes him a Japanese-Kenyan, not an overseas Kenyan. Thus, he falls into the range of runners that Larner will cover and talk about extensively. If Kuira had been beat by someone from overseas, Larner wouldn't have mentioned them much.

Why are you punishing Yuki Kawauchi?