Ritz v. Bekele

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  • Freeblast

    Anonymous Poster

    7 years ago 04/30/2016 1:31pm EDT

    I was looking at the IAAF XC result from 2001, men's junior race, the first time Ritz and Bekele raced. Ritz was third, 40 seconds back over muddy 8K. If you look at their career bests, that initial gap seems to remain pretty constant (~7 sec/mile):

    5K- Ritz 19 seconds back, 6s/mi

    10K- Ritz 65 seconds back, but never ran this in good conditions at his peak, 11s/back

    1/2 marathon- Ritz 5 sec faster, Bekele never ran under fast conditions

    martathon- Ritz 7s/mi, 2:07:46 v. 2:05:04

    I'll argue that Ritz has developed his talent as well as Bekele. Levels are levels,and Kenenisa was just on another from Day 1.

  • pert

    Anonymous Poster

    7 years ago 04/30/2016 3:06pm EDT
    re: Freeblast

    Nice analogy... one more, Ritz had 6-7 injuries 1 for Bekele. Ritz's contemporaries, Webb, Hall, Teg are done. Injuries prolonged his career alot

  • registered

    coach

    Member since 07/01/2002.

    12,947 posts. Last post 9 hours ago.
    7 years ago 04/30/2016 3:42pm EDT
    re: Freeblast

    I was at the xc race, first Bekele doubled that weekend and as you stated he was in a class by himself from day one. The conditions were muddy and no doubt Bekele could have gone faster.Ritz hung on for as long as he could but could not stay with the two leaders. He broke away with about 200 meters left to secure 3rd. Ritz developed well and we should be proud of what he accomplished. Always tough.

  • Freeblast

    Anonymous Poster

    7 years ago 04/30/2016 3:51pm EDT
    re: pert

    Ritz struggled with injuries but Bekele has had at least two significant ones, which have made him mortal since at least 2010. Still a tremendous career and he doesn't give up easily (chasing the ghost of GOAT Haile heh)

    pert wrote:

    Nice analogy... one more, Ritz had 6-7 injuries 1 for Bekele. Ritz's contemporaries, Webb, Hall, Teg are done. Injuries prolonged his career alot

  • U Asked For It

    Anonymous Poster

    7 years ago 04/30/2016 11:44pm EDT
    re: Freeblast

    It would be interesting to see a progression curve (based on IAAF points perhaps) over the career of each top runner. Webb would start out highest, but then go very erratic, while Ritz and Hall would rise more steadily to similar level, Solinsky would have his "big" breakthrough then dropoff, etc..

    Of course the most impressive curve would be...Justin Gatlin! lol

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