Who is Brian Komen?

Doping or not doping, when a guy like Komen can run 3:33.84 soon after he started to train at age 24, for me this clearly shows there are big structural differences between him and "western" runners (might be a combination of altitude, genetics, lifestyle, nutrition and so on). A white European who starts at his age to train will just not have such results.

Oh ok. Until 20 days ago his pb was 3:33.89. Are you going to now call me a liar and tell me his pb was 3:33.89 until 21 days ago or something, instead of focusing on answering the important question as to how we can know so little about a potential Olympic Champion in 3 months time?

Lol, he is not the 'African Champion', he won the African games. Stop blatantly lying and callling me a liar for making small and irrelevant errors. Oh, and you've totally discredited yourself by stating that Rekrunner is not a doping apologist.

This is correct. With the rampant doping and numbers of busts in Kenya, the AIU should surely be demanding more transparency regarding their athletes, including the proper recording and putting online of regional and lower level competitions.

At least with somebody like Katir, we had a good knowledge of his background, and you could make a decision as to whether him changing coaches (a baker) at age 24 and 'getting serious' could explain his sudden rise.

Give it up Hoady. The fact that a Kenyan can come out of nowhere in his mid-twenties and wind Diamond League races is not a reason to sprout your scientific racist theories again, it's a reason to be sceptical and to demand more transparency from Athletics Kenya.

You don't pay attention. Or you don't want to. A poster on the first page wrote:

Coevett wrote:
Until yesterday his pb was 3:33.89 in his 3rd listed race.

Fact Check:
His PB before yesterday was 3:32.29, which he ran 20 April 2024 in Nairobi. That remains his PB today. His best time last year, which he ran in his third listed race, was 3:33.84, not 3:33.89.

I answered that on the previous page, replying to trollism. Check also the first post on this page.

The fact that rekrunner is skeptical regarding the effects of PEDs doesn't make him a doping apologist. I may not agree with him but I know the meaning of word.

I think that's a great idea? Why don't you write an email to the AIU and ADAK proposing that?

Still doesn't explain much does it? We have Canova's word that Komen only started training a year before running 3:33?

And I'm still wondering why you only ever call out my 'factual errors' instead of, for example, Rekrunner and Canova claiming that EPO doesn't work. Or No9's asssertion that Komen was African Champion last year, when in fact he won the 'African Games' this year (only having to beat Kipsang who is clearly off the drugs).

Komen resmbles Eliud Ngeny who went from 1:49 to 1:43 at 24. He hasn't broken 1:44 since, or qualified for a major Games. Komen has run a second faster already than last year, but you'd expect that running in a Diamond League meet for the first time, and against the two Cheryuits and the others.

If Hoady and Canova are correct and he ran 3:33 off one year's training, then if he doesn't smash the sub 3:30 barrier this season, we know that he is or was doping.

"scientific racist theories" - what an hard to top unbelievable bul?&%$t Coevy.

No, absolutely no white "western" runner with no athletics background who started at age 23 or 24 will have Komen's results at his current age.

Btw, who or what is "Hoady"?

So you don't now if he is or was doping?

If he smashes the 3:30 barrier that's less of an indication for doping for you than not smashing this barrier? Interesting.

I don't know who Hoady is either. Spade Detector is a reasonable poster, yes, but the other one? Oi. Never have I seen a more hard core drug cheat apologist. He makes apologies for everyone and everything, from "the steroids were in the beef" to "the PEDs were in the vitamins" to "he kissed someone" to "the EPO was in the puddle" to "she just went to a hospital" to "she's in menopause" to "he only doped once" to "it was only a small amount" to "the drugs made her slower" to "the experts are wrong" etc. etc. etc. and then goes off topic with ludicrous walls of text. Just look into any doper thread, especially any Shelburrito thread.

Oh hello Casual Observer, long time since we saw you here.

Hoady is in all of these threads. Unfortunately, he's too ashamed of his own views and too cowardly to post under a regular username, but you can usually spot him as he nearly always chooses a five or six random letter handle, and eventually brings in his scientific racist theories.

If you see one of my posts, or ArmstrongLiv's posts get seven downovotes in one minute, or Rekrunner the equal number of upvotes, you know that Hoady is in town (and he appears to be online checking this message board almost 24 hours a day).

To address the first point, they have a very specific argument about EPO’s effect on well-trained runners at high altitude. I honestly don’t know, but I’d tend to agree with you that there is likely some performance-enhancing effect. But it’s not a simple factual mistake like yours often are. I’m not going to correct already corrected things for you or then, but I can acknowledge them. Anyhow…

So Elias Ngeny is your favorite whipping boy. I’ve always found it odd, he is a pretty unremarkable case. With limited opportunities he was a 1:49 athlete in heats of Kenyan domestic competition in 2018 at age 22, 1 month. He did make a large progression in 2021. Of course he had a possibly important progression in COVID where he ran the 1500 a bit. We also don’t know how many races in 2019-20 are missing from his ledger. He also took on Patrick Sang as coach at some point. He had his best-ever race of 1:43.84, but he’s been more of a 1:44-45 type guy since. This is decidedly not so crazy/evidence of anything. He ran 1:44.0 in 2022, but didn’t have sufficient tests to make the team. Contrary to your point, again nothing insane. If you watch him run, he is a kicker. He doesn’t drive the pace and comes from the back. So he is not going to make a B level European race or an unpaced Kenyan one fast. So he often runs in the 1:45-6 range. He ran 1:44.79 this year in even split fashion, but didn’t run great in his 2 races in China (respectably in the first).

Now for Komen, he clearly has taken a major step this year. That was a messy 3:32 and beating a slew of 3:30 or faster guys. It featured a 26.5 last 200 (12.9 last 100). His PB was at altitude and pushed Reynold to his absolute limit. Everyone knows Komen is currently in 3:30 shape. It is unfair to box him in as doping/not doping based on some arbitrary time range which will be dependent on his DL schedule. I also would love to hear just how much of a running background Komen has. It sounds like late 2022/early 2023 was his first serious training. But of course to join a camp like Complete Sports and seeking Kwalia’s help he probably had some inkling of his potential.

I suspect we will learn more and from his postrace interview, you can tell he is improving his English. Hoping someone can profile him because there is a lot to learn about him.

I'm Brian and so is my wife.

Why are you replying to yourself?

Hi rekrunner!

Appreciate the welcome, Bestie Coevett!

Same thing happens with euro runners. There are plenty of stories of woman picking up running as adults and rapidly getti by close to world class. Or if you prefer guys, Jim Ryun as a teenager went from zero to an Olympic team (and like 4s off the world record) in less than 25 months. And he was a teenager. If Allen Webb swam a couple more years and then picked up track at 18, wanna bet he would have broken 4 in his first 2 years?

There are just very few western people who take up the sport as an adult and have the support to do it. I am sure that is largely true in Kenya also. I also suspect he had a fitness base (played football, ran to work,…) that enabled him to go all in on training pretty quickly.