Koko leaves UAC

It was the fastest non-African half marathon (except for one by Radcliffe on a non-eligible course). FWIW her 800 and 1500m PBs are from 2017, pre-NOP. While it's true that 2019 was by far her strongest year, the strongest improvement was from 19 to 20 in 2017, long before NOP. (And at an early age when improvements are plauible. Of course, one can get suspicious, but then let's also scrutinize e.g Schweizer, Monson, Purrier, Cranny who were nobodies at 20 when Koko with an unknown German coach could run solo sub 4 1500 and got 3rd and 2nd place in DL races.)

And there were enough officially declared health issues since summer 2020 to explain weaker times in 21 and 20. She ran the Tokyo 10000m as second race of the season after only on month or so of serious training after injury and still beat all the Americans and Europeans (except Hassan).

"gray zone doping"..whatever.

That was all Salazar or post UAC. I don't believe that Julian was her lead coach for any of her best days.

Weldon probably will be irate, but I'll publish this under my own name. I thought the same thing. Is it wrong for me to say, "My god, she looks like she has an eating disorder." Yes, she's thin by nature but that thin?

I say that out of concern.

Why is it tabboo to comment on appearance if you are doing it out of concern?

Go Weldon.

Libs don’t have the ability to think critically.

Your description of Citius is spot-on. Their "hero-worshipping" smarmy approach is nauseating. They don't have to be negative but could strive to be factual-based and impartial

Let me follow up on this and have a look at 2 of her races in 2017. First, her then PB of 14:51 in her only 5000m race of the season (and her 2nd overall): if you have seen how she did that, you will agree that she was in 14:40 shape. Then (after having a bit messed up her WC debut one week before) what was arguably her best race in 2017 : the 3000m DL at Birmingham where she finished 2nd behind Hassan but ahead of Obiri, Kipkemboi and Tirop. Deduct something because the latter ones may have been a bit tired after the WC, and it was still impressive for a 20yo with then only semiprofessional training load.

My conclusion: While it is true that you never know, her 2019 performance was not suspicious as such.

I agree although I have not seen that 5000m race it was with lapping lots of runners and a ridiculous negative split (something like 9:10 + 5:41).

One also should remember that she was in the Rio semifinals at 19 yo and in that year among the top 5 under 20 worldwide from 800 through 10km (road). And as she didn't improve in 2018 after an injury in spring, the PBs of 2019 came two years after the strong breakthrough years 2017.

I don't really see why a runner who was better than e.g. Tsegay in 2017 and 2019 should be more suspicious because running 10 sec. slower than PB in the 5k after years troubled by injuries than the ones who have improved in leaps and bounds in the last 3 years.

Agree 100%. I appreciate their efforts and positivity and all that but it’s difficult to take them seriously when compared to other sports journalism.

For a journalistic brand apparently based on positivity, Citius sure doesn't miss an opportunity to bash Letsrun whenever they can. They literally force their interview guests to tell their worst "Letsrun experience". Like, imagine if the Brojos asked their interview guests to bash Citius. How stupid would that be?

I actually used to really enjoy Citius' content. They do a good job with utilizing social media and interviews with athletes to hype up their content, and some of the things they put out are actually interesting. But the biggest problem with their "journalism" is that they refuse to cover anything that has a negative light toward the athletes they "worship". I understand that they probably do this because a) they want to maintain a good relationship with athletes so they will go on their podcasts, etc. and b) They buy into the mentality that any kind of criticism of anything for anyone is inherently bad. I know they're doing this out of good intentions, but ultimately it just creates mindlessly unidimensional "worship" content, like people are saying. I rarely engage with their content anymore because it's kind of boring and I truthfully think it's unhealthy for the sport.

Meanwhile, they all band together against Letsrun because apparently everyone on this website is racist/bigoted/hateful etc. I don't deny the idiots here on LRC, but somehow it's the only place left on earth where criticism of any kind in the sport of T&F is tolerated. Literally every other sport allows people to criticize athletes/coaches/managers/fans etc. because it's part of healthy dialogue surrounding a legitimate sport. Until people realize this, T&F will be treated like a second-rate "fun run" sport. I wish Citius would come to its senses with this.

As to her 2017 5k: I only watched the 2nd half via youtube, but apparently she rabbited Hanna Klein through 3k (thus the relatively weak intermediate time). There don't seem to be official split times, but the last 2k were about 2:54 followed by 2:47, the last lap being about 65, and she was visibly not at her limit. 14:40 shape for sure.

Well we can bet that if she joins OAC she will be faster and it won't be because of the new spikes

Because too many male coaches tell female distance runners that they're fat when they're actually a healthy weight -- they're just not anorexic-looking.

Because PEDs, with the exception of EPO, are all recovery drugs. Stop taking PEDs while continuing to train with the same volume/intensity and injury and illness is likely to result. Injuries have dogged Koko ever since she left NOP.

But she has not left "NOP" yet. She had the injuries while she was with them and was the best runner of her age in 2017 almost two years before joining NOP in winter 2018/19).

Definitely. While NOP proper was dissolved in October 2019, Pete Julian's group persisted. Plus, if you speed up recovery - whether by illegitimate or legitimate means - you do so because you want to be able to increase your training load; injury prevention is a different topic. And btw, we know that Sifan Hassan didn't do too badly at Tokyo, from which I conclude that the dissolution of NOP proper wasn't such a big setback.