"Kipkurgat attempted to break Fiasconaro's world record two months later in Pointe-à-Pierre, Trinidad and Tobago.[4] He split 1:13.2 for 600 m, but ran completely out of energy and almost walked to the finish; his 600 m split, however, remains the fastest ever in an 800 m race and one of the fastest 600 m times in any conditions.[4][5]"
John Kipkurgat (born 16 March 1944) is a Kenyan former middle-distance runner who won gold in men's 800 metres at the 1974 British Commonwealth Games. Career Kipkurgat won silver in men's 800 metres behind fellow Kenyan Cosma...
I don't recall ever hearing the context before, but the facts were wrong here. Iverson's friend was killed seven months earlier. The murder trial was just getting going when he made the remarks after finally patching things up with Larry Brown about staying on another season. They were in the midst of a downer season after getting to the finals the previous year. From Matt Walk's ESPN.com story:
"The other part few remember from the practice rant is the raw and lingering wound Iverson still suffered from the death of his best friend. Rahsaan Langeford was shot and killed seven months earlier, an event with which Iverson struggled to cope. All throughout the '01-'02 season, Langeford's death hung over Iverson, and just days before his interview, the murder trial for the man accused of killing Langeford began. The 2014 documentary "Iverson" explores this dimension. "Nobody looks at the whole comment Allen made," Scoop Jackson says in the film. "He was talking about his boy dying ... [The media] would not play that full track." In truth, minutes after he jokes about practice, Iverson becomes more serious and vulnerable. "I'm upset for one reason: 'Cause I'm in here. I lost. I lost my best friend. I lost him, and I lost this year. Everything is just going downhill for me, as far as just that. You know, as far as my life. And then I'm dealing with this. ... My best friend is dead. Dead. And we lost. And this is what I have to go through for the rest of the summer until the season is all over again.""
yeah man that was so hilarious when Allen Iverson's best friend and groomsmen was sh@t 8 times and passed away just after the wedding and then AI started crying and had a breakdown because he skipped a practice to go to the funeral and the press kept bullying him about missing practice over and over and then we all proceeded to make fun of AI for the next 24 years for what he said while he was grieving his best bud passing and then he was finally like...if you're all gonna make fun of me for two straight decades for this I might as well make some money off this and so he started doing it in commercials which has gotta feel terribly conflicting but nonetheless here we are and boy that meme is funny.
Iverson was not skipping practice for the funeral, and had skipped many practices. It's not bullying to ask him about it. You should run for Kenyan parliament.
i didn’t even know he was still running. Impressive time
I consider myself pretty washed up these days. Russell helped pace me to one of my best PRs quite a few years ago. Crazy that he's still got it.
I'm the same age as him, watched him run at a Smith College mini meet literally half my life ago. World athletics says his pr is 1:46; to run within 2 seconds of your 800 PR at 35 is mind blowing