Geoffrey Kirui had no idea who Galen Rupp was - he just asked him what his name was in the press conference

It reminds me when I was in college and the IC4A was a big meet.

My teammate won the indoor 400 out of the second heat. They ran two heats of four and he was in the heat with the four lower seeds but ran the fastest time overall in the finals.

There were a couple of All Americans in the fast heat that he beat.

I asked him if he knew who he just beat.

He had no idea. He didn't follow the results of other runners or watch the NCAA championships.

He just trained and raced.

He had no fear of the other runners because he didn't know who they were.

(he also had the advantage of running clear in the slow heat while the guys in the fast heat had to deal with bumping each other)

El Keniano wrote:

Les wrote:

I think it's necessarily about medals for Kenyans -- it's more about racing style. They admire/remember competitors who go for it like Jager in Paris. Had Jager not done what he did in Paris he might still be unknown to most Kenyan runners, despite his Olympic medal.

This guy gets it. And it's not just about Paris too, that guy is a true lion (appropriate mane again) and always brings it even when he doesn't do well, like the WC final in Beijing. Always a factor. And no lame excuses when he loses. His silver medal at the Olympics was due to his own doing, not the result of a perfect storm of luck, accidents and circumstances like the 1500m.

Find video interviews of Kenyan runners and notice the tone when they talk about Jager - all admiration and respect.

Jager runs like 2 races from the front - loses in hilarious fashion - and all of a sudden he's the biggest thing in Kenya.

Here's the 2015 Beijing 3k final:

Jager sits in the middle of the pack from 0-2200, shares the lead from 2200-2600 and then gets his doors blown off from 2600-3000.

Here's the American Record:

Jager sits behind the pacemakers for 2k, leads the next 900 m, falls flat on his face with 60m to go.

Not the most inspiring racing I've seen, but to each their own.

FatWife wrote:

Not being a jerk.

But seriously, how low IQ is Kirui if he doesn't even know who Rupp is?

It was not uncommon for the Kenyans on my college team to ask the coach things like:

Coach - "We will be doing 1000m repeats today."

Kenyan - "Coach, how many laps around the track is that?"

or

In the March/April travelling to Texas Relays:

Kenyan - "Coach, are we running a cross country race or track race?"

yyy wrote:

Don't you think Kiprop etc respect Centro?

I don't think any of them respected Centro which allowed him to win a strategic slow race

OprahLover wrote:

FatWife wrote:

Not being a jerk.

But seriously, how low IQ is Kirui if he doesn't even know who Rupp is?

It was not uncommon for the Kenyans on my college team to ask the coach things like:

Coach - "We will be doing 1000m repeats today."

Kenyan - "Coach, how many laps around the track is that?"

or

In the March/April travelling to Texas Relays:

Kenyan - "Coach, are we running a cross country race or track race?"

By the way - low intelligence and lack of knowledge are two completely different things. Obvious but people always screw it up.

Kiprop was able to catch up to Centro and then inexplicably failed, but then Centro being so smooth did not look like he was going as fast as he was, 50.6 last 400m. The fact is that everyone in the race had the chance to take him--no one was left behind by the pace up to 1100 (they did run 55 from 800-1200) and couldn't.

I don't think we need to put our own narrative on these things. I thinks it's a misunderstanding. If not, I am willing to believe that he did not know him. I just don't really understand why not.it's one of the biggest days of his year. I would think that his coach would research the field and talk to him about the race plan in advance. There are only a few people who were expected to contend - and let's assume he knows half of the Kenyans - so Canova only has to talk about 3 or 4 people.The Farah / Jeilan story never rang true to me either but I guess I'll believe it too. It just seems hard to imagine that Salazar would not research and prep Farah on the Ethiopians in a WC final. Maybe it happened but it seems out of character for people who dedicate everything to one goal for a year.

Les wrote:

sundown wrote:

Rudisha knows who Murphy is--he was celebrating with him after Murphy beat the other Kenyans.

I'd think the Kenyans would know who Centro is after winning four World and Olympic medals, including two gold.

I think it's necessarily about medals for Kenyans -- it's more about racing style. They admire/remember competitors who go for it like Jager in Paris. Had Jager not done what he did in Paris he might still be unknown to most Kenyan runners, despite his Olympic medal.

I bet most Letsrun posters didn't know who Kirui was before yesterday. It goes both ways.

OprahLover wrote:

El Keniano wrote:

Kenyans only know (and respect) Evan Jager. Helps that he looks like a real simba on top of his fearless racing. The rest (Rupp, Centro, Murphy ...) don't register.

They don't even know Pre? What a bunch of dummies...

True story. While in Kenya last month an Austrian journalist with me had on a Prefontaine t-shirt. 60 year old guy with grey hair but a lot of hair like pre.I saw two kenyan runners asked him if he was Pre.

sekftjvke wrote:

El Keniano wrote:

This guy gets it. And it's not just about Paris too, that guy is a true lion (appropriate mane again) and always brings it even when he doesn't do well, like the WC final in Beijing. Always a factor. And no lame excuses when he loses. His silver medal at the Olympics was due to his own doing, not the result of a perfect storm of luck, accidents and circumstances like the 1500m.

Find video interviews of Kenyan runners and notice the tone when they talk about Jager - all admiration and respect.

All good points, but you call centro holding the lead the entire race a "perfect storm of luck and accidents"?? You can't just discount centros run because his competitors didn't step up. He did, and that's what matters

Remember there was also a fall from one of the medal favourites in Ronald Kwemoi. And this happened to arguably the best kicker in the 1500m today, Elijah Manangoi who, had he been in it, likely wouldn't have settled for a 3:50 pace:

It was written in the stars for Centrowitz.

El Keniano wrote:

Kenyans only know (and respect) Evan Jager. Helps that he looks like a real simba on top of his fearless racing. The rest (Rupp, Centro, Murphy ...) don't register.

What about the Robertsons? 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😃😃😃😃😃😃😃😂😂😂😂😃

Kenya had 30 guys run sub 2:08 last year What are the odds of them being familiar with the exploits of a 2;10 guy from another country?

sekftjvke wrote:

El Keniano wrote:

This guy gets it. And it's not just about Paris too, that guy is a true lion (appropriate mane again) and always brings it even when he doesn't do well, like the WC final in Beijing. Always a factor. And no lame excuses when he loses. His silver medal at the Olympics was due to his own doing, not the result of a perfect storm of luck, accidents and circumstances like the 1500m.

Find video interviews of Kenyan runners and notice the tone when they talk about Jager - all admiration and respect.

All good points, but you call centro holding the lead the entire race a "perfect storm of luck and accidents"?? You can't just discount centros run because his competitors didn't step up. He did, and that's what matters

Not discounting Centro's run at all... but that style doesn't exactly leave the rest of the field beaming with respect for him. Instead they're saying: i coulda woulda shoulda raced different and beat that 'merican sucka.