all* wrote:
i was watching the 2004 olympic 1500m last night, and the announcer was discussing how one of the athletes (i think a kenyan, but not sure) started out runnin the marathon. the coach gradually moved him down and this guy saw more success each time he moved down a distance, and he ended up making the final at the olympics, which i think is pretty cool.
You're thinking of Mulugeta Wendimu of Ethiopia. I've seen that race enough times to memorize the the commentary. He finished 10th in that race and he set his PB of 3:31 that year (uh, Alan Webb anyone?).
After that race, however, I never really heard of him again. He didn't make it out of his heats at Helsinki but he ran a personal best of 2:13 at Amsterdam this fall. He hasn't really had a very good year: 3:41/7:50 were his track bests this season. He's only 21 years old, however.