So Ingebrigtsen's indoor 1500 title this year is "weak"?
What don't you understand about it? Yes, it is weak. The indoor champs is not a fully participated championship. Why don't you look at the actual participation numbers at WIC? They are a curio. Something for Northern athletes to do in the dark, icy Winter cold.
I remember Beamish's debut two years ago. 8:42. Nothing special, especially considering he was a 3:51 miler. But he got his feet wet. It was good enough to elicit a "we'll see?" (my debut was 8:52 as a 4:08 miler at 18). Given Beamish's reputation as a vicious competitor, I had a hunch that he had potential ... and did he. His second steeplechase was the reveal. He took to the steeplechase like a rat take to cheese.* That was only two and a half years ago!
In college Beamish climbed the ladder one rung at a time. You could see his competitive nature showing through on each rung. This win is just the end of this progression.
Lets Run trying to be provocative (?) and just coming off as rude in the interview after the race. "Did you move up to the steeple because you thought you couldn't medal in the 1500 or 5k?".
Sure, indoor champs isn't worth as much as outdoor champs but Geordie literally has a gold medal in the 1500 in 2024!
Asking rude questions isn't good journalism. Asking questions that the public would want clear answers to is good journalism. He already won a 1500m gold in a secondary event. I'd like to know: did running two diamond league steeples in short succession set him back in training this year? Did it create any anxiety for running rounds? What did his training progression look like the last month and how did this year compare to the Olympics cycle? What is Ritz doing to keep him healthy?
Lets Run trying to be provocative (?) and just coming off as rude in the interview after the race. "Did you move up to the steeple because you thought you couldn't medal in the 1500 or 5k?".
Sure, indoor champs isn't worth as much as outdoor champs but Geordie literally has a gold medal in the 1500 in 2024!
Asking rude questions isn't good journalism. Asking questions that the public would want clear answers to is good journalism. He already won a 1500m gold in a secondary event. I'd like to know: did running two diamond league steeples in short succession set him back in training this year? Did it create any anxiety for running rounds? What did his training progression look like the last month and how did this year compare to the Olympics cycle? What is Ritz doing to keep him healthy?
Agreed, that's a really cheap shot at a gold medallist. They'd never ask it of Jager or Rooks. A total lack of class from LRC, surprised it came from Jon who is usually better than that. Nice quick retort from Beamish though: "I got one last year"
This post was edited 3 minutes after it was posted.
Agreed, that's a really cheap shot at a gold medallist. They'd never ask it of Jager or Rooks. A total lack of class from LRC, surprised it came from Jon who is usually better than that. Nice quick retort from Beamish though: "I got one last year"
With a bit of a cold stare, too. Haha. In fairness, I felt like JG didn't intend to insult, but was asking for clarification on Beamish's comment that his move to the steeple,"was all about the medals . . . This is why I moved up to the steeple."
Always amazes me that the slow kickers are surprised when they get outkicked on a slow pace.
Did they think it'd be magically different this time?
I was kind of blown away that El B and Girma were leaving it so late in a slow race when surely they were aware of Beamish's kick- he has enough highlight reel 1500/mile wins at the last minute that I was fully expecting him to win with 200m to go.
Lets Run trying to be provocative (?) and just coming off as rude in the interview after the race. "Did you move up to the steeple because you thought you couldn't medal in the 1500 or 5k?".
Sure, indoor champs isn't worth as much as outdoor champs but Geordie literally has a gold medal in the 1500 in 2024!
Gault really doesn't get it. One of these days, one of those guys he's interviewing will respond with a justified verbal take-down.
If Gault would just bother to read the LRC message board he could learn how insulting his questions are. For his edification, here's a lesson on the steeplechase. No excuse for him to ask insulting questions anymore. Why the steeplechase is the most badass event in track and field....
Historically steeplechasers match up well with their flat competitors. But it's a one way street: steeplechasers can run the flat events, however flatrunners rarely have success in the steeplechase. There will be pain---lotsa pain. If you can’t run the steeplechase, you run the 1500.
Krzyszkowiak, Roelants, Keino, Jipcho, Rono, Garderud, Bayi, Lopes, Malinowski, Bedford, Dixon, Panetta, Kiptanui, Koech, Cherono, Tanui and now Beamish
Steeplechase WR holder and 1960 Olympic Champion Zdzislaw Kryszkowiak ranked top 10 in the world in the both the 5000 (6,2,3) and 10000m (5,1,7) in addition to his land and sea specialty (3, 3, 8, 1, 1, 9) Bob Schul started off as a steeplechaser. Won Tokyo gold in 1964 in the 5000m. Good thing he switched events. He would have been no match for Gaston Roulants, who, incidentally, was also the best cross country runner in the world.
Anders Garderud started off as an average 1500m guy. Switched to the steeplechase and had great success. Funny thing happened to him...by running with the men among men in the toughest event of them all, he soon became one of the best 1500/5000m men in the world -- faster than your beloved Pre. Rod Dixon, Dave Bedford and Steve Jones all dipped their toes in the forbidden waters. Out of fear from the horrors they had seen, they thought better of it, and turned tail back to the safety of the terra firma. We know what the Jonesy Wales did in the marathon. He was never going to strike terror in the hearts of steeplechasers, but he single-handedly changed the way the marathon would be run forever.
The marathon has a wall. The steeplechase has thirty-five of them.
Filbert Bayi started off as a steepler, couldn't hack it, switched to the easy events and set two WRs (1500, mile). Only when he became a man did he go back to the steeple, but was still no match for Bronisław Malinowski.
At the 1974 Commonwealth Games Ben Jipcho won the steeplechase (8:20), 5000m (13:14), and was 3rd in that epic 1500 (3:33), a triple that is unheard of even today.
Jurgan Straub was a struggling steeplechaser, then set his sights on the low-hanging fruit in the 1500, for Olympic silver in 1980. He wiped the snarky smirk right off the faces of those guys.
Carlos Lopes was a steeplechaser, then went for the easy pickings in the 10k and marathon. Like the OG in 1984.
Greg Meyer tried, and tried, and tried in the steeplechase. SPLAT! When he finally gave up he won the Boston Marathon. I ain't lying!
Bruce Bickford, the American Junior recordholder in the steeplechase, found the event too tough, so he went after some more of the low-hanging fruit in the 10k, and became the #1 ranked 10k runner in the world in 1985.
Same with Georgetown steeplechaser John Gregorek, the current American Junior recordholder, ran a 3:51 mile just for kicks.
Another 3:51 miler AJ Acosta tried to run the steeplechase "just for kicks", but it was a painful nightmare that he wishes he could forget. … Ghosts appear and fade away…
In 1987 steeplechaser Francesco Panetta won his event at the World Champs, after taking silver in one of those weak events -- the 10,000m
In 1990 Mose Kiptanui was African 1500m champion and also won the World Junior 1500m championships. He ran primarily the steeplechase until 1995 when he became the first man under 8:00. When he heard about this guy Gebrselassie breaking the WR in the 5000m with his 12:56, he said to himself "If I can run the steeplechase, then I can beat Shorty McSellassie" and promptly went out and lowered Shorty's record to 12:55.
Oh, in 2008 Kiptanui started coaching some guy who likes to dance after he wins his races. hmmmmm...
World record-holder Saif Asseed Shaneen (aka Stephen Cherono) is the 11th fastest 5k runner of all-time with his 12:48, and he did it while beating some schlep named El Garage, El Garbage, or El Kabong, who ran a lifetime PR 12:50.Something like that anyway. ;-)
Once Geordie Beamish made the switch to the steeplechase in 2023, it tempered his steel, and he quickly became World Champion in the 2025 indoor 1500, just for kicks. Then WC in the steeplechase.
The best steeplechasers in the world are very tiny men who adapt well to the herky-jerky improvisational nature of the event. Those athletes are ones who tend not to be "rhythm runners." Rhythm runners tend to do very poor in the steeplechase because of the event's unpredictability.
The steeplechase is not a hurdle event, it is in, and of, its own. The hurdle events are distant cousins to the steeplechase. They are well-rehearsed soliloquies: step-step-step-step-jump - as opposed to the steeplechase, which is an acrobatic improv. Pack dynamics are much different in the steeplechase than in any other event; this is especially evident in the approach to the barriers where you must be completely focused and spatially aware of your physical relationship to both the rapidly approaching barriers, and to the competitors around you, all the while mindful of the split second decisions and adjustments you'll need to make to come through cleanly. Mistakes in the steeplechase are brutal and bloody. Mistakes in flat events are akin to guitar playing -- maybe get a blister on your little finger, maybe get a blister on your thumb...
In the flat events you don't have to think about what's up ahead, or beside you ... or behind. You don't have to think about ... nothin'. Dumb people run the flat events, It's geniuses like Norman Einstein who can run the steeplechase!
You don't get to choose the steeplechase. It chooses you.
There is no other event in track and field like it. It's the honey badger of running events. It doesn't give a sheet where you've been, or what you've done, it WILL humble you. Honey badger don't give a sheet.
The supposed “weak” event allows everyone to run it. There is no secret handshake and no monthly dues. Everyone is invited.
"Come with uncle and hear all proper. Hear angel trumpets and devil trombones -- you are invited."
Funny thing is, few dare to answer the clarion call. But if you do, here's some advice for you: hold onto your balls, you're going for a ride.
"Come and get one in the yarbles, if you have any yarbles, you eunuch jelly thou!"
The steeplechase has made geldings out of many a brave men.
Once again, the steeplechase is the most badass event in track and field....
Blow my mind? Why? The indoor title is secondary to the outdoor title, I've said as much. But he did beat everyone who did show up. It's still a World Championship title.
So Ingebrigtsen's indoor 1500 title this year is "weak"?
What don't you understand about it? Yes, it is weak. The indoor champs is not a fully participated championship. Why don't you look at the actual participation numbers at WIC? They are a curio. Something for Northern athletes to do in the dark, icy Winter cold.
I remember Beamish's debut two years ago. 8:42. Nothing special, especially considering he was a 3:51 miler. But he got his feet wet. It was good enough to elicit a "we'll see?" (my debut was 8:52 as a 4:08 miler at 18). Given Beamish's reputation as a vicious competitor, I had a hunch that he had potential ... and did he. His second steeplechase was the reveal. He took to the steeplechase like a rat take to cheese.* That was only two and a half years ago!
In college Beamish climbed the ladder one rung at a time. You could see his competitive nature showing through on each rung. This win is just the end of this progression.
I wasn't disputing your observation about an indoor title being "weak". I was asking if you would therefore apply that description to Ingebrigtsen's indoor title. Fair enough if you think that but it isn't a popular view here that his indoor title is weak. "Weak" is a dismissive term when it might just be said an indoor title doesn't have quite the same cachet as an outdoor title.
In respect of Beamish, he has shown an impressive capacity to win from behind against big name athletes.
This post was edited 8 minutes after it was posted.
"The best steeplechasers in the world are very tiny men who adapt well to the herky-jerky improvisational nature of the event."
El B would appear to be an exception.
Jager wasn’t tiny either.
The steeplechase is obv a very brutal event and not at all easy, but to act like it is as deep as the flat events is an absurd activity.
For every Fam, Jager, Beamish, etc. (guys who can and would compete well in flat events) there are ten guys who became really good at that specific event and weren’t competitive in college XC or ever in flat events. Heck, one of them was leading the WC today with two laps to go, even.
The reason everyone on this thread is urging Teare to move up is because he can’t make the 1500 or 5K team and because he’s a much more talented runner than any of the American steeplers.
This isn’t to throw shade at anyone, and I hope Malmo doesn’t overreact by trying to prove his/other steepler’s manhood, it’s just a well known fact.