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Rating The US Women At The NYC Half

Three of the top five from the women's Olympic Marathon Trails were on hand in New York. Kara Goucher, third at the Trials, was best of the group, finishing third in 1:09:12. Janet Cherobon-Bawcom, fifth at the Trials, was also fifth here in a PR by over a minute in 1:09:55. Desiree Davila, second at the Trials, was ninth here in 1:10:44.

Kara Goucher 1:09:12
Janet Cherobon-Bawcom 1:09:55 (PR)
Desiree Davila 1:10:44

First, props to Janet Cherobon-Bawcom for a PR by over a minute. The longer distances are fairly new to her and she's getting better quickly.

Some of you are probably wondering what happened to Desi. You shouldn't be. Desi's PR is a modest 1:10:34, so to come within 10 seconds of her PR two months after the Trials is a decent run.

As for Kara's 1:09:12 in third place, realize that is the slowest half marathon of her life except for a 1:14 in her first race back from pregnancy. This was still a pretty good run for her being close to the Trials. The fact it was her slowest competitive half ever shows how damn good she is at the half marathon.

The fact Kara's slowest half is faster than Desi's fastest also shows how the full marathon is a different beast than the half marathon. Don't forget, Desi nearly won last year's Boston marathon. To be a factor in London at the Olympics, Desi will need to get faster in the half. Running 10 seconds a mile faster doesn't seem impossible and that would put Desi at close to 1:08:30.

Kara already has the speed in the half, all she needs to do is extend it to the marathon. Easier said than done.

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The Kenyan 10,000 Trials Will Be In Eugene & We React

Last week, the Kenyan Commissioner of Sport said, "You do not hold national trials in another country because you have an all expenses paid trip by Nike."

Well, guess what happened last week:

It's Official: The Kenyan Men's 10,000m Olympic Trials Will Be Held At Pre Classic

Ignoring national pride, from a technical perspective - to us, anyway - having a race not at altitude makes a lot of sense, as running at altitude and runnng at sea level are often two different sports.

That being said, we have a few problems with the decision.

1) If Athletics Kenya and Nike are going to move a country's Olympic Trials to another country, then they need to pay for everyone to show up - end of story.

The stories have all said that Athletics Kenya will send 15 people to Eugene. Well, that sounds fine until you realize the following men all have the "A" standard in Kenya.

1	26:43.98			Lucas Rotich	KEN	16 Apr 90	Bruxelles
2	26:48.99			Josphat Bett	KEN	12 Jun 90	Eugene OR
3	26:50.63			Paul Tanui	KEN	22 Dec 90	Eugene OR
4	26:51.95			Emmanuel Bett	KEN	30 Mar 83	Bruxelles
5	26:53.27			Eliud Kipchoge	KEN	5 Nov 84	Bruxelles
6	26:54.25			Mathew Kisorio	KEN	16 May 89	Eugene OR
7	26:54.64			Mark Kiptoo	KEN	21 Jun 76	Eugene OR
8	26:55.29			Leonard Komon	KEN	10 Jan 88	Eugene OR
9	26:55.73			Geoffrey Kirui	KEN	16 Feb 93	Bruxelles
10	26:59.81			Titus Mbishei	KEN	28 Oct 90	Bruxelles
11	27:06.35			Geoffrey Kipsang	KEN	28 Nov 92	Eugene OR
12	27:10.05			Moses Masai	KEN	1 Jun 86	Eugene OR
13	27:13.67			Bidan Karoki	KEN	21 Aug 90	Stanford CA
14	27:21.62			Paul Lonyangat	KEN	12 Dec 92	Bruxelles
15	27:22.09			John Cheruiyot	KEN	5 Jul 90	Eugene OR
16	27:22.53			James Rungaru	KEN	14 Jan 93	Yokohama
17	27:23.85			Martin Mathathi	KEN	25 Dec 85	Kobe
18	27:23.99			John Thuo	KEN	27 Nov 85	Kobe
19	27:24.18			Edward Waweru	KEN	3 Oct 90	Fukuroi
20	27:25.63			Peter Kirui	KEN	2 Jan 88	Daegu
21	27:28.64			Stephen Sambu	KEN	7 Jul 88	Stanford CA
22	27:29.40			Leonard Korir	KEN	10 Dec 86	Stanford CA
23	27:30.50			Kevin Chelimo	KEN	14 Feb 83	Stanford CA
24	27:30.53			Mike Kigen	KEN	15 Jan 86	Bruxelles
25	27:31.15			Aron Rono	KEN	1 Nov 82	Stanford CA
26	27:32.9hA			Wilson Kiprop	KEN	14 Apr 87	Nairobi
27	27:32.97			Dennis Masai	KEN	1 Dec 91	Bruxelles
28	27:33.14			Patrick Mwaka	KEN	2 Nov 92	Fukuroi
29	27:38.9hA			Geoffrey Mutai	KEN	7 Oct 81	Nairobi
30	27:39.21			Josphat Muchiri	KEN	12 Feb 85	Kumagaya
31	27:40.60			Paul Kuira	KEN	25 Jan 91	Hachioji
32	27:41.32			Gideon Ngatuny	KEN	10 Oct 86	Kumagaya
33	27:41.33			Lewis Korir	KEN	11 Jun 86	Helsinki

33 people with the "A" standard. How do you limit that to 15?

Yes, we know that flying people internationally is expensive, but we don't care. Nike flies hundreds of high school kids each year to Oregon each year for its Nike Cross Nationals. If someone with the "A" standard wants to compete, they should be allowed to be there. Cap the field if you want but not at 15.

2) It's way too soon before the Olympics.

The date is June 1st. The Olympic 10k is August 4th.

We here at LetsRun.com have always said that the best way for a country, particularly Kenya with it's amazing depth, to pick its best team is to pick the team at the very last possible date. Get rid of the training camps and what not and just hold the Trials on the last possible date acceptable by the IOC or IAAF and let capitalism/darwinism/survival of the fittest get you some real talented and in-form guys.

The regular Kenyan Trials are three weeks after Pre - on June 23rd. If anything, we think Athletics Kenya should have had the 10,000 Trials three weeks AFTER Pre - well two weeks anyways as the Olympic rosters are due on July 8th according to the IAAF.

3) It's way too close to the spring marathons.

By having it on June 1st, it's next to impossible for many of Kenya's best marathoners to recover and have a chance. The winner of the NYC Half last week, Peter Kirui, also was the winner of Kenyan 10,000 Trials last summer. Well, guess what? He needs to get paid and there isn't much money in track, so he's running the Rotterdam marathon on April 15th. The 10,000 in Eugene is less than 7 weeks after that and less than 6 weeks after London (April 22nd).

So what happens if say Geoffrey Mutai, who won the Kenyan XC Trials, Boston and New York last year and is the best runner on the planet in our minds, has a bad race in London and is somehow left off of Kenya's Olympic marathon team. He's going to have a hard time being ready to go in Eugene some 6 weeks later so he's a likely wild card spot, meaning there would be no room for Kirui.

The 10,000m guys nowadays are more likely to be the marathon guys, so they need the most time to get ready. Yet the 10,000 Trials are 3 weeks before the 5,000.

One more thing on Pre - Pre officials announced there will be also be in essence a "B" men's mile on Friday night (the night of the Kenyan Olympic Trials) in addition to the Bowerman mile on Saturday. A ton of guys likely will be wanting Olympic "A" qualifiers. The only problem? You can't get an Olympic qualifier in the mile - it has to be in a 1,500m. Both races need to get approval from the IOC for mile times to count as Olympic qualifying times. We're big supporters of "Bring Back the Mile" but unless mile times get approved as qualifiers, we don't see too many people running miles that close to the Olympic Trials unless they have a qualifier already.

More: *It's Official: Only The Kenyan Men's 10,000m Olympic Trials Will Be Held At Pre Classic *Ken Goe Article *Prefontaine Press Release *Kenyan Commissioner Of Sport Rips Plan To Hold Kenyan Trials In Eugene *A Men's Mile, Women's 800, 1,500 Will Be Held On Friday Before Pre Classic *Editorial: Kenya's Olympic Trials in the US a big blow to the nation

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Japanese Olympic Hopeful At 10,000 Impresses At 13.1

Since in talking about the NYC Half, we talked about the Kenyan and US's Olympic men's 10,000 teams, we figured we might as well talk about Japan's Olympic 10,000 hopefuls in the light of some good 13.1 running last week.

A Japanese Olympic hopeful at 10,000 last week ran sub-61:00, only it was in Japan, not in the US. In his 13.1 debut, 20-year-old Chihiro Miyawaki ran 60:51 to capture the 2012 National Corporate Half-Marathon Championship in Japan. That is a very good time as it would make him the #7 performer all-time in US history. Instead, it makes him the #6 performer in Japanese history and the guy is only 20 years old.

Another Japanese runner, Masato Kihara, ran 61:15 in that same Japanese race. Additionally, the top Japanese performer in New York also broke 62:00 in Yuta Shitara (1:01:48), so on the weekend three Japanese guys broke 62:00 but only two Americans did it (Meb ran 61:41, Ritz ran 61:52).

A closer look at the top Japanese guy on the weekend, Miyawaki, reveals he has a 27:41.57 10,000 PR from last November. And that got us to thinking, "How many Olympic 'A' qualifiers does Japan have (sub-27:45.00)?"

The answer: 3.

Tsuyoshi Ugachi   27:40.69
Chihiro Miyawaki  27:41.57
Tetsuya Yoroizaka 27:44.30

That got us to ask ourselves, "What other countries have any 'A' qualifiers in the men's 10,000 at all?"

The list is so small that we extended it out to "B" qualifiers (28:45) and it made us appreciate Kenya all the more.

Countries With Olympic "A" Qualifiers In Men's 10,000 - Sub-27:45.00
Kenya - 33
Ethiopia - 5
USA - 4
JPN - 3
GBR - 2
ERI - 2
AUS - 1
MEX - 1
FRA - 1
ECU - 1
ITA - 1
Countries With A "B" Qualifier - POR (1), RSA (1)

Another way to keep score is as follows:

#Of "A" Qualifiers In Men's 10,000
Kenya 33
Rest Of World 21

Thus, the Olympic 10,000 - which will go straight to a final - will have a max of 23 people in it unless more people qualify.

With a list like that, it's hard to believe that Kenya hasn't won the men's 10,000 since Naftali Temu in 1968. Of course, it needs to remembered that Kenya boycotted 1976 and 1980 and track and field truly went professional in the 1980s. Since the start of the professional era, there haven't been that many real chances to win gold, considering Haile Gebrselassie and Kenenisa Bekele have had a stranglehold on gold since 1996.

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Chinese Women's Olympic Marathon Trials

Last weekend, the Chinese Olympic women's marathon trials were held. Any fear that people had of obscure unknown Chinese women coming out of nowhere to dominate like Ma's Army did back in days of Wang Junxia nearly 20 years ago are officially over.

The top three finishers in the trials are all relatively known commodities. Wang Jiali, who was 8th in Daegu, got the win (2:22:41), 2007 London champ Zhou Chunxiu was 2nd (2:23:42) and Zhu Xiaolin, who was 4th at 2008 Olympics, was third (2:24:19). 2009 world champ Bai Xue was way back in 2:43:27 and didn't make the team.

The most striking thing about the Chinese team is how experienced they are (some might say past their prime). The winner, Jiali, is 26-year old but she did PR by 3:31 to run 2:23:42.

2nd placer, 33-year-old veteran Zhou Chunxiu, is a shadow of her former self as she ran 2:19 in 2006 and won London in 2007 in 2:20:38. Third placer Xiaolin's pr dates from 2002 - nearly 10 years ago - when she burst on to the scene as an 18 year old with a 2:23:57.

More: *Chinese Women's Olympic Trials Are Held - 3 Experienced Runners Win Spots *MB: Videos of Ma's Army World Records FINALLY surface

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Quote Of The Week (That Wasn't Quote Of The Day)

"A year ago at this time I was like trying to scramble ... but we've just got to be patient for the light at the end of the tunnel for things to turn around. In life, you always have your ups and downs, ups and downs, but if you're patient enough to wait then good things will happen."

- American Meb Keflezighi talking prior to the 2012 NYC Half Marathon.

Meb are certainly way better off now than his was a year ago. A year ago, he wasn't running a spring marathon as no one would pay him, he had no shoe sponsor and many were writing him off. Now he's coming off two straight marathon PRs, including a win at the Olympic Marathon Trials, and he has a new sponsor (Skechers).

More: Brief Chat With Meb Keflezighi