Who the f*** is Micah Kogo?

My Take wrote:

If this website was as good as it could be, after every meet there would be a smart, reasonable exchange of ideas and information about the races and competitors. That way we, the community of people who care about such things, could educate each other about new faces and trends. .

What you desire already exists. All of this information has been posted in the links to the results and all of those races have already been discussed ad nauseum on this message board.

Well, I'm pretty diligent about clicking on the links to the various races, but I would hardly say there is anything "ad nauseum" about the discussion of them on the boards. In fact discussion is often pretty scanty, unless Goucher, Rupp, Webb, or Jennings are involved.

I appreciate anyone helping us learn about the lesser-known runners at the top of the sport. Thanks.

Really? wrote:

I had to look up the times but not the places. KOGO ran in the US. It was on TV. He won Heusden, the same race that Goucher ran 13:10.00. Do you not pay attention, or are you just oblivious to what's going on in our sport?

Soi won Lausanne. He was second to Bekele in Paris. Mathathi has been around for awhile, training in Japan.

Be proud of your ignorance, it will serve you well making french fries for the man.

It wasn't on my TV because I don't live in the US.

I rather think you're more interested in displaying your in-depth knowledge of distance results, your googling skills or your trolling ability than having a serious discussion, but anyway you're only proving the point by mentioning Goucher's time. Since people know who he is there was discussion about it, there was absoluting no comment on Kogo.

Had, say, Mo Farah, Bernard Lagat or Stefano Baldini run the 6th fastest 10k time ever last night the message board would have gone wild, because it was Kogo there was nothing, not even a link to the results. It's this which is disappointing, people just don't care because they have no idea who he is. I really hope he does stay around, he can challenge for WC medals and we can form an opinion of him, but the chances are that another Kenyan will take his place next year.

Death of Athletics wrote:

It wasn't on my TV because I don't live in the US.

I rather think you're more interested in displaying your in-depth knowledge of distance results, your googling skills or your trolling ability than having a serious discussion, but anyway you're only proving the point by mentioning Goucher's time. Since people know who he is there was discussion about it, there was absoluting no comment on Kogo.

.

You're talking in circles. Anyone who is a regualar at Letsrun is familiar with Kogo. Let it go little boy. Let it go.

Immigrant wrote:

I was under the impression that these big meets in Europe sell out everytime anyway? Also, perhaps the problem is that the Americans need to either:

a. Get faster, or

b. Become more educated about the BEST runners in the sport so that they CAN care when some "unknown" athlete wins.

the big meets used to sell out but spectator numers are falling as are tv audiences and soon few will paying to watch these guys run. Track and field in Europe (where the money is) is a dying sport.

My Take wrote:

If this website was as good as it c.uld be, after every meet there rould be a smart, reasonable exchange of ideas and information about the races and competitors. That way we, the community of pe+ple who care ab+ut such things, could educate each other about new faces and trends.

Then we might all be as knowledgable as "Really," or at least not quite so shocked by a breakthrough performance as "Death of Athletics."

Probably not going to happen, and I like "Letsrun" well enough a# is, but in a better world...

it's called trackandfieldnews.com/discussion

you know people who actually follow the sport in a non-racist som!what educated manner.

Samuel Kosgei wins crim 10-mile event&vt1=v&at1=News&d1=143067&activePane=info&playerVersion=1&hostPageUrl=http%3A//abclocal.go.com/wjrt/story%3Fsection%3Dlocal%26id%3D4498326&rnd=95989400

Not sure what to say

Running Historian wrote:

Immigrant wrote:

I was under the impression that these big meets in Europe sell out everytime anyway? Also, perhaps the problem is that the Americans need to either:

a. Get faster, or

b. Become more educated about the BEST runners in the sport so that they CAN care when some "unknown" athlete wins.

the big meets used to sell out but spectator numers are falling as are tv audiences and soon few will paying to watch these guys run. Track and field in Europe (where the money is) is a dying sport.

A "dying sport"??? That really is not a given. It's true that there are fewer meets now than a dozen or 15 years ago (Nice and Cologne don't exist, anymore, etc.). However, the big meets are still quite healthy. I attend Zurich pretty much every year and it is always sold out. Brussels is always sold out. I was at Lausanne in early July and it appeared to be almost completley sold out. Stockholm is typically a full house, etc. The Paris and Rome meets are both in gigantic stadiums and so don't come close to a "full house" but they still get alot of fans. No matter how you cut it, the sport is doing much better in Europe than in the U.S.

remember that those "sell out crowds" rely on a huge number of corporate tickets which are given to sponsors.

in some cases (zurich for inst) there are years where over half the tickets are allotted to sponsors before the joe blows have a chance to purchase any.

this makes it much harder to judge actual consumer interest. if we look at TV numbers then the sport is in a world of hurt (if popularity is what we seek).

dude can you make up any more facts? that may be the things work in the US. but that doesnt happen in the european meets.

track and field in europe is on its knees. Every year fewer and fewer people care about either particpating in or watching the sport - it is going the way of boxing.

LouSiffer wrote:

remember that those "sell out crowds" rely on a huge number of corporate tickets which are given to sponsors.

in some cases (zurich for inst) there are years where over half the tickets are allotted to sponsors before the joe blows have a chance to purchase any.

this makes it much harder to judge actual consumer interest. if we look at TV numbers then the sport is in a world of hurt (if popularity is what we seek).

?? If these are really facts, I'd appreciate having a reference source. I do not believe for one minute that "over half the tickets are allotted to sponsors." That's just not believable. The years that I've been to Brussels, it was clear that some of the best seats along the homestretch were for corporate types, but certainly not any great percentage of all the seats.

Have you ever actually been to any of these meets?

Regardless of the "true" situation, the question remains: the state of t&f in Europe compared to what? Compared to the US, it's absolutely booming. Compared to the sale of Ipods (or whatever) it's dead as a doornail. So what?

o really?

call brewer or mcmanus at adi or d.g. (now at reebok UK) and ask how many tickets they would get per gp meet. dont forget to figure in the media allocation. plus the allocation for each agent.

LouSiffer wrote:

o really?

call brewer or mcmanus at adi or d.g. (now at reebok UK) and ask how many tickets they would get per gp meet. dont forget to figure in the media allocation. plus the allocation for each agent.

Sure, there are certainly several hundred allocated this way. And some city bigwigs and their families get them, corporate sponsors, and so on. So what? It certainly does not add up to anything remotely like half the total seats. Bottom line: the big meets like Zurich sell out year after year. The stands are totally full (not even any standing places left). How in the world is this some sign of failure or fraud? If that's the case, every day at every Olympics is a complete fraud.

Really? wrote:

You're talking in circles. Anyone who is a regualar at Letsrun is familiar with Kogo. Let it go little boy. Let it go.

I was being pretty slow. The screaming capital letters in your first post should have given it away. You're a troll. Thanks for confirming it.

so last year he ran a 13:15 at some point and now he can go twice as long at that pace? COME ON PEOPLE THINK!!!!! It really annoys me when west africans get defended like this

never said it was an indication of failure nor fraud, just that it is very hard to judge actual consumer interest solely from ticket sales when a large percentage is allocated to sponsors (certainly the sponsors are due the seats given their $$ input). if there was an untapped market for viewship i believe television would be pounding at our door.

i can tell you from my own days that a shoe co would usually get close to 100 tickets (if it was the local or iaaf sponsor) or 25-50 tickets (if non-sponsor supplying athletes or product perks)

weltklasse alone has 23 local organizing sponsors,

add in the 7 (i believe) IAAF sponsors who take up the front stretch of each venue

add in media then add in each agents allocation (ever been to hengelo and seen how many prime seats are left after the media is seated?)

DublAK2 wrote:

so last year he ran a 13:15 at some point and now he can go twice as long at that pace? COME ON PEOPLE THINK!!!!! It really annoys me when west africans get defended like this

I hope you've never had a bad race. Cold day, not in great shape, winds, just not your day? Any of that affect you?

I ran a 5k in March of 2005. I ran my 10k PB about two months later. The 5k splits were both 10 seconds faster than the 5k race. I stepped up my training in between and trained very hard. I'm a nobody who placed 22nd in that race and averaged about 40 mpw in those two months. I'm sure Micah Kogo worked pretty hard to run 26:35.

East Africans..how about when Jeremy Wariner and Teg run out of their minds...does that annoy you?