Is Kerr lame for his DMR effort

Have you ever competed in a track race before? Sometimes you have issues that are beyond your control. Something you would know if you race is that not every race goes well. I think Kerr did what was best for him at the time, and there is no telling if he could have even pushed through the pain.

yes. next question please.

KeepRunning wrote:

He runs fine in Mile qualifying, and then wins the Mile the next day, but has 'stomach' problems in the DMR?? I don't know anything about him, but seems like he bailed on his teammates for individual glory.

He can say whatever he wants but it's clear he gave up on the DMR. He probably realized half way through his leg that they had little chance to win and wanted to keep himself fresh for the open mile. He chose to win the open mile instead of trying hard to get his DMR teamates All-American. He should have just told his coach ahead of time that he didn't want to run the DMR.

400collegeguy wrote:

KeepRunning wrote:

He runs fine in Mile qualifying, and then wins the Mile the next day, but has 'stomach' problems in the DMR?? I don't know anything about him, but seems like he bailed on his teammates for individual glory.

He can say whatever he wants but it's clear he gave up on the DMR. He probably realized half way through his leg that they had little chance to win and wanted to keep himself fresh for the open mile. He chose to win the open mile instead of trying hard to get his DMR teamates All-American. He should have just told his coach ahead of time that he didn't want to run the DMR.

Maybe his teammates should have put him in a better position to get all-American or win than they did? He was clearly in pain out there and he got the team more points anyway winning the mile then he would have killing himself for 5th or 6th in the DMR and a bad mile

Gotta bee wrote:

400collegeguy wrote:

He can say whatever he wants but it's clear he gave up on the DMR. He probably realized half way through his leg that they had little chance to win and wanted to keep himself fresh for the open mile. He chose to win the open mile instead of trying hard to get his DMR teamates All-American. He should have just told his coach ahead of time that he didn't want to run the DMR.

Maybe his teammates should have put him in a better position to get all-American or win than they did? He was clearly in pain out there and he got the team more points anyway winning the mile then he would have killing himself for 5th or 6th in the DMR and a bad mile

If he ran to his potential, there is ZERO chance his team gets worse than 3rd - probably 2nd. Just check the splits. An easy 6-8 points. All American status for teammates too.

Then, there’s ZERO chance he gets worse than 3rd in the mile. 6 points. 12 total points and 4 all-Americans > 10 total points and 1 all-American.

Only Kerr knows what happened... if he was hurting, I feel sorry he has to deal with this. If he did it for selfish reasons, he’s a jerk. We will never know.

I don’t know if there’s a replay available somewhere, but if there is, watch his face during the dmr. He was clearly struggling before he began to drop back. I’m inclined to believe he had a legitimate issue that caused him to slow down.

Yeah, that's a good point I never considered. Seems like a case of CYA now that you mention it. I wonder what his face/body language looked like in the mile prelims, I imagine that could tell us more about his "problems." It could be legitimate, but then again, it reminds me of those track guys that "pull a muscle" right before a race they weren't particularly excited about running in.

yes. Lame is an understatement. He is an absolute quitter. I don't care if you are having "stomach issues" if you are a 3:5xlow miler there is no chance the best effort you can produce is a 4:20 mile split. Hundreds of high school kids can run faster than that. He should have been disqualified as I don't think that warrants an "honest effort," as the rules state. I feel bad for his teammates that put him in position to have success and got devastated. Even having terrible pain i'm sure he could have ran 4:07-10 (Which is like 15 seconds slower than he can run) which would have been enough to reach first team All-American for his teammates. Kerr = Disgrace.

yes wrote:

yes. Lame is an understatement. He is an absolute quitter. I don't care if you are having "stomach issues" if you are a 3:5xlow miler there is no chance the best effort you can produce is a 4:20 mile split. Hundreds of high school kids can run faster than that. He should have been disqualified as I don't think that warrants an "honest effort," as the rules state. I feel bad for his teammates that put him in position to have success and got devastated. Even having terrible pain i'm sure he could have ran 4:07-10 (Which is like 15 seconds slower than he can run) which would have been enough to reach first team All-American for his teammates. Kerr = Disgrace.

I dont think anybody here claimed that 4:20 was the best he probably could have done, so I'm not sure who you are arguing with.

The argument was that if he had pushed through and run that 4:07 you are suggesting, it wouldn't have been worth risking the mile.

His coach also appeared to have told him to jog it in when he was hurting. So maybe you should direct you anger towards his coach.

So none of you experts has ever had a serious stomach issue during running right??? Really!!!! So none of you have ever had your stomach start to knot up??? He had intense pain, and couldn't work through it. He absolutely wanted to run the DMR and was devastasted he couldn't do a good job for his teammates. The next day he openly talked about how he still had pain in his side. Josh did not quit on his DMR mates, he simply couldn't put his best effort forward. Give the guy a break, he is a fantastic competitor.

My issue is that he wasn't honest about it. It was pretty clear that he just threw in the towel because his team was out of it. I'm okay with him saving himself for the mile.

But then he went on the TV and tried to spin it as stomach problems and his coaches said it was a side cramp.

I think it's entirely possible Joe Franklin told him to pack it in if they were out of contention. Not everyone will agree with the decision, but I can see where theyre coming from.

A team like UNM is not in contention for the team title, so you could certainly see how UNM/Franklin/Kerr would rather come home with an individual Mile title over a DMR 3rd and Mile 3rd even if that gets them a couple more points.

Half the time DMRs come down to a sit and kick on the mile leg, so in that case it's nice to have Kerr in there to blast a 52 FTW without shooting his wad for the next day. That didn't happen this year, so they chose to fight another day.

so you all know more than josh...right wrote:

So none of you experts has ever had a serious stomach issue during running right??? Really!!!! So none of you have ever had your stomach start to knot up??? He had intense pain, and couldn't work through it. He absolutely wanted to run the DMR and was devastasted he couldn't do a good job for his teammates. The next day he openly talked about how he still had pain in his side. Josh did not quit on his DMR mates, he simply couldn't put his best effort forward. Give the guy a break, he is a fantastic competitor.

I doubt he just decided to throw in the towel just to save himself for the mile. If that were the case, he wouldn't have volunteered to be on the DMR to begin with, as he had to know that there was no way he could have helped his team do well without having to run fast and risk tiring himself. Neither him nor his coaches would be dumb enough to think otherwise.

That being said, I don't think I've ever seen a situation where a runner has 3 races, somehow has an utterly debilitating stomach problem during the second race, but is perfectly fine for both the first and the third. Stitches and cramps bad enough to forcibly stop a runner from competing usually happen over much longer distances.

Almost exactly the same situation happened with a girl at my high school in the 4x8 at states. She was the clear favorite in the open 800, got the baton in around 8th or 9th as the anchor, nowhere near the front but could easily jog for a state medal. She ended up jogging like a 2:40 for last place and wins the open 8 by FIVE seconds. The other girls on the relay were pretty upset after the relay, for many of them it was there last chance for a state medal, and the state champion girl didn't receive much praise after her performance from the girls' squad.

Huge snowflake move to me. Unless Kerr was truly hurting during his leg, then he should feel pretty guilty about his performance, otherwise why even be on the relay at all.

Yep, lots of talent but not very tough kid.

it's been stated by all involved parties that he was suffering from some stomach issue. Period.

I keep reading comments such as "if it really was..." "hopefully that's what it really was..." etc. etc.

Newsflash: you can keep your conspiracy theories in your car where you listen to Alex Jones on the way home from work.

Unless you have a *reasonable* suspicion that Kerr did NOT experience a stomach issue (as noted by another poster, he was grimacing mid-race), please shut the eff up and discuss a topic that's actually germaine to top level track. Please don't bore us all with your drivel about a potential conspiracy theory and nothingburger.

(full disclosure: I've never met Kerr and barely know who he is)

not my real name wrote:

(full disclosure: I've never met Kerr and barely know who he is)

Sure you don't, Josh. Make sure to take some tums before bed tonight.

love you sweety wrote:

not my real name wrote:

(full disclosure: I've never met Kerr and barely know who he is)

Sure you don't, Josh. Make sure to take some tums before bed tonight.

+1 was about to post this.

not my real name wrote:

it's been stated by all involved parties that he was suffering from some stomach issue. Period.

I keep reading comments such as "if it really was..." "hopefully that's what it really was..." etc. etc.

Newsflash: you can keep your conspiracy theories in your car where you listen to Alex Jones on the way home from work.

Unless you have a *reasonable* suspicion that Kerr did NOT experience a stomach issue (as noted by another poster, he was grimacing mid-race), please shut the eff up and discuss a topic that's actually germaine to top level track. Please don't bore us all with your drivel about a potential conspiracy theory and nothingburger.

(full disclosure: I've never met Kerr and barely know who he is)

The only reason there are conspiracy theories at all is probably because of how each race played out. Perfectly fine for the mile prelims. Perfectly fine for the mile finals. But during a single four minute stretch, he's incapacitated by stomach pains during a relay? On top of that, during the interview, he spoke as if he was absolutely confident that he'd be perfectly fine for the mile finals, which, to anyone who watches it, makes it seem as if the problem was not a big one at all.