Why did Bekele and Geb foolishly obliterate the world records?

Newsnight. wrote:

I remember bubka commenting onetime that Geb was foolish to smash the records when he could have had a regular income stream from lowering them incrementally.

Was it the EPO and they couldn't slow down?

It was because they were competitors, not money grabbers.

no

they were $ chasers

geb messed-up when he took tergat's 26'27 down to 26'22 & reportedly commented after that it was " easy"

hermens must kicked him for taking 4s off when he knew geb shouda looked at clock & just eased off to ~ 26'25, making the next wr attempt lot easier target

bubka was right & geb screwed up going too fast with 26'22

he likely had ~ 26'15 in him that day, so no need to run 26'22 when 26'25 wouda easily done the job required

tergat though was pretty crap in his 26'27wr as well

off jog to 5k he just sped-up & sped-up !!!

his last 3k was 7'50 !!!

that is 26'06 pace !!!

tergat in his wr was capable also of at worst ~ 26'15 if flat-out from gun but poorly paced

the actual top-times for 10k are a joke compared to what those couda run ideally paced to 5k & the guys today are just as good but don't get the chance to chase it anymore seriously

no

they were $ chasers

geb messed-up when he took tergat's 26'27 down to 26'22 & reportedly commented after that it was " easy"

hermens must kicked him for taking 4s off when he knew geb shouda looked at clock & just eased off to ~ 26'25, making the next wr attempt lot easier target

bubka was right & geb screwed up going too fast with 26'22

he likely had ~ 26'15 in him that day, so no need to run 26'22 when 26'25 wouda easily done the job required

tergat though was pretty crap in his 26'27wr as well

off jog to 5k he just sped-up & sped-up !!!

his last 3k was 7'50 !!!

that is 26'06 pace !!!

tergat in his wr was capable also of at worst ~ 26'15 if flat-out from gun but poorly paced

the actual top-times for 10k are a joke compared to what those couda run ideally paced to 5k & the guys today are just as good but don't get the chance to chase it anymore seriously

They earned their main money in appearence fees and sponsorship not record money. He would have needed to set about 50

Newsnight. wrote:

I remember bubka commenting onetime that Geb was foolish to smash the records when he could have had a regular income stream from lowering them incrementally.

Was it the EPO and they couldn't slow down?

You are looking at it from a Sergey Bubka philosophy, incrementally improve the WR to claim a bonus each time. But Geb due to his consistency could demand a massive appearance fee. Bekele really only mildly improved WRs on three occasions. Geb did really blast the WRs.

Subway Surfers Addiction wrote:

Newsnight. wrote:

I remember bubka commenting onetime that Geb was foolish to smash the records when he could have had a regular income stream from lowering them incrementally.

Was it the EPO and they couldn't slow down?

You are looking at it from a Sergey Bubka philosophy, incrementally improve the WR to claim a bonus each time. But Geb due to his consistency could demand a massive appearance fee. Bekele really only mildly improved WRs on three occasions. Geb did really blast the WRs.

Geb didn't have as much choice, Bubka did. Komen and Tergat were what Bubka didn't have.

Bubka didn't have the PV equivalent of Daniel Komen to deal with.

French Dawg wrote:

It was because they were competitors, not money grabbers.

Kenenisa Bekele:

For me, money is an ingredient that makes things interesting. Without salt, you can not consume food properly. Without money, sport does not mean anything to those who win the races. It is very important."

In the PV, you choose your next jump height. This makes it much easier to control how much you break a record by. With running, its a little more difficult to control your exact pace, especially late in the race. You're pretty much in survival mode during the final 1-2 laps of a race. Your brain is too preoccupied with trying not to collapse in pain. That's my experience at least...and I'm sure the greatest runners the world has ever seen are in an even more extreme place of pain that I've ever managed.

Because they could. No drugs, hard work, talent.

It's what you call an HONEST EFFORT from true competitors. 'Nuff said!

olyrun wrote:

Because they could. No drugs, hard work, talent.

But they weren't US runners so it had to be drugs.

Coin Flip wrote:

Bubka didn't have the PV equivalent of Daniel Komen to deal with.

Not exactly true. Maxim Tarasov was a legit threat.

Also, earlier in his career, bubka did trade records with a couple of vaulters.

Bekele probably did leave significant potential to improve his own 10K, but a better race never came together

Because you never know when conditions will be good enough to replicate and improve performance. Many runners have had incredible performances at relatively young ages that never were improved on due to never getting the right conditions together again. It would suck to know you actually could have done better in your last performance if you never got another chance. Just look at that with Bekele. He set his world records early in his career, and yet things never quite came together for him to improve on those marks even though many might've thought he would still have many more years in his prime. What if Komen had this philosophy and never achieved the crazy times that he did? (I'm not sure that he was clean so that might not matter to us, but it certainly would for him if he knew he could've done better)