Where Your Dreams Become
Reality
Where Your Dreams Become
Reality
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The Week That Was Feb. 2-8, 2009 There was a lot of action both on and off the track this week. Let's break it down right away.
While one of the great things about the marathon is the long buildup and the uncertainty over who is the most fit coming in, we think it's better for the fans if marathoners run at least one race prior to the big show. That way, we can get a glimpse into their fitness. IF they do amazing, the excitement and anticipation for the full 26.2 really builds. We are UNBELIEVABLY excited for this showdown as it comes on a course where the world record was set by Sammy Wanjiru. Hasay Mania Hits LetsRun.com We must admit we did chuckle when Hasay said academics were a big part of her reason to go to Oregon. Perhaps the physiology program at Oregon is quite good thanks to Nike money but last time we checked Oregon was ranked 52 out of 68 public universities. We certainly believe that one can get a great education at virtually any college in the country if they work at it but we're tired of athletes being disingenious when they sign contracts (or letters of intent). Hasay really acted like a big-time pro signing a big free agent contract. Ever noticed how the pros always say they love the city and their new teammates when in reality it's often about the Benjamins? There's nothing wrong with saying, "I want to go there cause it's Track Town, USA, baby!" Jordan Hasay Picks Oregon That was the easy part. Then the world came to an end as we counted 13 threads on the first page of the message board about the
decision. Figuring out which
one you most want to read is more difficult than her picking a school. There was a lot of great actual running action last week both in the US and in Europe. However, the off-the-track action may have been even hotter. It's rare that an American who just achieved a career breakthrough to win an Olympic 10k medal dumps both her coach and agent within months. It's even rarer still that after a part that a coach will talk openly and not in media-speak about the breakup. But that's exactly what happened last weekend as it was announced that Shalane Flanagan has dumped her coach John Cook and her agent Peter Stubbs, both of whom will be replaced at least in the interim by her husband, Steve Edwards. Totally shocking in our minds.
It was shocking that Flanagan moved on from Cook but the biggest surprise of the week was that Cook didn't hold back. He let Flanagan have it in the media. Cook didn't pull any punches. Quote Of The Week II From John Cook:
Stunning News Shalane Flanagan And Erin Donohue Split With Coach John Cook Months after winning bronze medal, Flanagan has dumped both her coach, John
Cook, and her agent, Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down From USATF XC
Thumbs Up to the modern day version of the "Big Three" of German Fernandez, Chris Derrick and Luke Puskedra (it'll be interesting to see how that Big 3 ends up compared to the unreal Big 3 of Ritz, Webb and Hall) for showing up and running the junior race and for going 1-2-3. It was only fitting that Fernandez got the dominant victory - crushing 13:44 guy Chris Derrick by 19 seconds and NCAA 5th placer Puskedra by 33 seconds, as Fernandez was the one who didn't finish top 10 at NCAAs. It's astounding to think that Fernandez was 1:15 up on 4th place. It's really scary to think how good Fernandez's performance was. Assuming the courses were accurately measured and assuming they were equally difficult (which is an erroneous assumption most likely) and assuming Fernandez would be as good at 12k as 8k (perhaps another erroneous assumption), then Fernandez's 23:20 for 8k would be "equivalent" to roughly 35:53 for 12k. The winning time in the Senior 12km race was 36:04. Therefore, we'd like to congratulate German for "winning" the Senior US title as well - at least in our fantasy matchup. Congratulations German, you have earned the LetsRun.com Male Performance Of The Week. A special mini-thumbs up to Syracuse's Patrick Dupont and Francisco Medrano for making the junior team and representing upstate NY - the home of LetsRun.com. Also a Thumbs Up to Meb Keflezighi for proving that the disappointment of 2008 is a thing of the past and that he still has a lot of gas left in his 33-year-old tank by edging Tim Nelson for the Senior Mens' title. Kudos for Nelson for giving Meb a run for his money.
Neely Spence - way to go as well for your dominant junior girls victory. *Q&A With Neely Spence *More On USA Cross Junior Champion Neely Spence Spence was definitely overlooked as the junior XC champ this weekend as Meb, German and Brown got all the attention.
While we praise the meet for putting on such a nice race, we have to give them a Thumbs Down for not making the race truly spectactular. The same meet also had Abubaker Kaki going for the world 1k record, which he didn't get as he clocked 2:16.23. Why The Stuttgart meet also saw Bernard Lagat run 7:35.41 while Meseret Defar ran 8:26.99. Stuttgart: *Defar Runs 8:26, Lagat Runs 7:35, Ismail Runs 1:45, Kaki 2:16 Ismail, the Olympic silver medallist, beat the last two Olympic 800m champs in his race and Kaki beat Baala, who ran 2:17. *IAAF Recap: Defar & Kaki Shine As 8 World Leaders Set Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down From Reebok Boston Indoor Games: Thumbs up to Nick Willis for making a 3:53 look so effortless, Thumbs Up to Pablo Solares for making Willis work for it a bit and Thumbs Up to Alan Webb for competing once again. Thumbs Down to Webb for thinking he might have had the race won at 1k when in reality the racing was just about to begin. Thumbs Up to Shalane for crushing the American record and to former Providence friar Roisin McGettigan for her Irish indoor mile record. Thumbs Up to Kara Goucher for getting us excited about the Boston marathon. Thumbs Down to the PA system that made it very hard to hear the announcing. Thumbs Up to the top 4 men from the men's 1k for beating high schooler Robbie Andrews' national high school record time of 2:22.28, Thumbs Down to the two that didn't. Well, we take that back, we'll give a Thumbs Up to Moise Joseph for almost beating Andrews' time and for trying to steal the race from the front as the rabbit. Lastly, Thumbs Up to Reebok and Nutrilite for sponsoring the meet during this economic downturn. But Thumbs Down to Reebok for firing so many people in their running division - we need spending, not cutbacks, to get out of this mess. Reebok: *Meet Website *Results *Photos *Video Interviews And The (Masters) Performance Of The Week Goes To: 60-year-old Yoshihisa Hosaka of Japan. The guy is amazing as he ran an age group world record of 2:36 at the 58th Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon, which actually was on Feb. 1, but we didn't learn of it until last week. 2:36 at age 60. Unreal. The best part of it all ... the smile on Hosaka's face everytime he races. Look at the smile in the photo from his 2:36 and look at it in a Running Times on Hosaka piece from 2002. Japanese 60-Year-Old Runs 2:36 Marathon, An Age Group World Record
The answer would be know but Andrews proved that our hyperbole was justified. Robbie Andrews Runs 2:22.28 To Smash Alan Webb's 1000m National High School Record Quote Of The Week From Someone Not Named John Cook -2000 Olympic 400 meter champion, Cathy Freeman, speaking about how she has started running again after her brother's death in a car accident. *Cathy Freeman Back Running To Cope With Brother's Sudden Death Weekly Drug Update And while the players ultimately are the ones to blame, the cheating primarily occurred because those in charge in both sports were afraid to really try to crack down as they were scared that they'd find exactly what came out much later - rampant cheating across the board. While we are giving ARod a Thumbs Down for in our minds still lying like Marion Jones about the extent of his drug use, we do think he was accurate when he said, "Back then, it was a different culture. It was very loose." Barry Bonds did drugs because he was tired of seeing his big rivals in Sosa and McGwire cheat and get away with and get all the fame. Similarly, Mary Slaney and others in the US and others in Athletics West who didn't get caught probably ended up cheating as they thought so many Eastern Europeans were getting away with it. Baseball is finally paying a huge PR price for it's sins of a decade ago just like track and field did at the turn of the century. The NFL is in our minds the next league to suffer the major PR hit but that will probably take 5 more years. We still think the NFL might be full of the most cheats of any league. Thankfully now that leagues are largely being forced to hear the music, we think rampant drug use won't be the norm in the future. From now on, no athlete has any semblence of an excuse to cheat. The tide has finally officially turned. ARod Admits To Taking Performance Enhancers Earlier we had respect for ARod but after watching his interview and hearing he said he didn't know what
he was taking, we no longer believe him. If you have any drug info you want to talk about on or off the record, pleaseemail us. Silence only allows the problem to continue. We must come clean with the past before going forward. Recommended Reads Famed Olympic, Stanford Track Coach Payton Jordan Dies Jordan was a great coach, meet promoter, and athlete (World Record holder in the 4 x 110y in 1938 and he also ran a 14.35 100m at age 80). adidas Athlete Craig Mottram Hires New Coach Chris Wardlaw Wardlaw coached Kerryn McCann. On the boards: Mottram chooses new coach!
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Runner's World &
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couldn't all four stars race the 1k distance?
Track needs more head-to-head matchups and indoors needs more odd distances. In our minds, it's disappointing when you have big stars in similar events at the same meet. Why not have them compete against each other? How cool would it have been to see Goucher vs. Flanagan in Boston and Kaki vs. Bungei vs. Borzakovskiy vs. Ismail in Stuttgart?
