Worst Choking Moments in Running

just a random dude wrote:Ummmm.... 2004. Not that long ago, actually, when you think about it.

Pictorial evidence:

just a random dude wrote:

just a random dude wrote:Ummmm.... 2004. Not that long ago, actually, when you think about it.

Pictorial evidence:

http://www.stefanobaldini.net/index.php?option=com_zoom&Itemid=53&page=view&catid=1&PageNo=1&key=0&hit=1

runsc just got totally owned.

tdfrs wrote:

just a random dude wrote:

Pictorial evidence:

http://www.stefanobaldini.net/index.php?option=com_zoom&Itemid=53&page=view&catid=1&PageNo=1&key=0&hit=1

runsc just got totally owned.

You spelled pwned wrong, n00b!

dude, sarcasism does not come across well here on the boards. I know about Baldini and his great running career. I was trying to take an excuse away from why Hall did not win the olympic marathon trials. I hear all the time whites can not win and Baldini proved we can. I hear all the time Africans are better in the heat and Baldini proved them wrong. I hear all the time how our guys went out too slow with Wanjuri going out hard because of the heat. I guess my sarcasism did not come across well.

Also Hall in his first, I hope not last, Olympic marathon did not choke. 9th place is very respectable especially with his tactics. I hope in the next olympics he will go after the win and go out with the leaders.

I guess if I wanted to agrue, I could say that Baldini is Italian and not of upper European decent but that was not my point when I post my first point. Hall ran well for his first olympics. Right tactics to place well but not the right tactics to win. Go out with the leaders, you may win but you may blow up.

keep getting disturbed at work. What I am trying to get across is that if we want to return to the top in distance running we need to stop making excuses why we do not excel, like we did in the 70's Rodgers, Shorter. We need to shut up and run and not make excuses. Also we need to praise and build up our best instead of bashing them like some of the letsrun posters do. We are on the upswing and lets praise them for their improvement rather than saying 9th at the Olympics is choking.

There is a difference between choking and not being in proper shape to perform to the best of your ability. Mamede just couldn't handle rounds for some reason. Webb clearly had been off his game all this year. Hall said that he had poor preperation for this marathon-slower tempos, as did Sell.

Alisson felix got 2nd in beijing with an obvious hitch in her stride, even though she was the favorite. DId she choke? No, she just didn't have as ideal of a preperation as the year before.

I will say that SFH choked big time. Purposefully falling in the last 100m is about the biggest choke ever. But that doesn't make her a bad person.

runsc wrote: I guess if I wanted to agrue, I could say that Baldini is Italian and not of upper European decent

Well, that doesn't really help your case, since you wrote "When was the last time a White, light colored hair person won the Olympic marathon. "

I don't agree with the idiots calling Ryan Hall a choker either - I think he had a fine Olympic debut.

I'll pick this as the worst choking moment in running.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/2003-09-16-runner-chokes_x.htm

Olympic - Favor-Hamilton 2000 and Mamede 1984; runner up Clarke 1964

Olympic Trials - Webb 2008; Holman 1996

NCAA - Rono 1978 xc championships. You youngsters wouldn't know it and many oldsters have probably forgotten, but Rono had set his 4 world records the spring before and was considered all but unbeatable at NCAAs. He tripped early on, but just gave up and ended up running 35 or 36 minutes for 10K and was 2nd or 3rd from last.

I kinda like800m wrote:

Vera Nikolic 68 Olympics

http://www.sporting-heroes.net/athletics-heroes/displayhero.asp?HeroID=6011

I don't know whether it's sad or what, but this was the first incident that popped into my head.

Les wrote:

Fernando Mamede, 10k world record holder, running off the track in the middle of the 1984 Olympic 10k final.

I have to second the Mamede suggestion, because he was at the highest level of the sport. He led the WORLD at least twice I believe in the 5k (although Wikipedia says once). I think he was second fastest in the world in '81 (13:08 to Rono's 13:06 WR) and he won the biggest 5k of 1984 (13:12 in a race where Vainio, Lopes and Treacy all PR'ed) then days later he set the WR in the 10k, finishing in an astonishing (to me at the time) 1:57 for the last 800m.

He then proceeded to leave the track in the middle of the 10k final after setting the fastest time ever run for a heat in the 10k (27:45 - winning).

Vainio won silver in the 10k (then got a DQ), Treacy got a silver in the marathon after struggling in the 10k, Lopes won the Gold and went on to win World titles and WR's. Leitao (also Portuguese) won bronze I think in the 5k.

Mamede ran about 27:43 (for third) behind Bickford and Nenow at DNG (I think) the next year, but after that I don't ever remember him putting up any world class times on the circuit and he definitely never won any medals or even ran in any championships I don't think.

He was a tragic figure.

i remember all that now....it was amazing...by they OGs though it was almost expected, so the announcers were not surprised. He went right to the back of the pack and their only comment was, "Well, he has some problems in big races".

And its not like he had no experience at this level - he ran the 800 and 1500 @ the '72 OGs. He was a veteran in every sense.

Emotionally, the compounded failure is debilitating, I am sure.

Part of the problem was that he couldn't handle rounds...he wasn't a complete choker because he crushed the world when there weren't rounds and he was fresh.

Anytime Alan Webb steps on to the track in any race that matters. Anytime Adam Goucher runs on any surface other than grass.

dave bedford, '72 olympics 10k.

he was FT guy so he got tired wrote:

Part of the problem was that he couldn't handle rounds...he wasn't a complete choker because he crushed the world when there weren't rounds and he was fresh.

No, it wasn't that. He was probably one of the top-5 talents in the whole history of distance running before the EPO generation.

I believe he won his heat at the inaugural WC in Helsinki. maybe that is where he ran 27:45 and I got it mixed up. He may have won his heat at the '84 OG also, but I don't know. It was not an endurance problem, or a problem holding up to rounds. Someone said he was LAST at the '82 EC (where Lopes was third) and he was last (or Salazar was) at the '83 WC, then he RAN OFF THE TRACK at the '84 OG. I think he beat Lopes nearly every race they ran together, and there were many.

He set the ER record twice in the 10k. 27:27 and then 27:22 to beat Salazar, Hagelsteens and Rono. Then the WR in '84. He led the World List in the 5k and was second on it once at least.

He wasn't great at WCCC, but that may have been because of the pressure, who knows? Lopes was a national hero in XC, having won the '76 WCCC and then going on to win a silver in the Montreal 10k. Lopes was always rock-solid, not always winning, but always performing.

It's funny ... I remember now that many people commented that Lopes lacked what it took to win the big races. He always was beaten by Mamede on the track, he had won a silver medal in the WCCC, and he got sixth at the WC the year before. He also got 2nd at the Rotterdam showdown in '83. However, this was overlooking the fact of who was beating him. He entered the biggest 5 and 10ks on the circuit each year and he was bound to be outkicked most of the time in those by Mamede. Only three men in history win the WCCC nearly every time out, and Lopes eventually won two more (3 wins, 2 seconds). To avenge the Rotterdam loss he set a WR in 1985.

To some of us it just made sense: He was a better 10k and XC runner than Salazar, DeCastella, Seko, Treacy and Dixon. It made sense (after it was over) that he would win.

Seconding the Ryan Hall comment. So disappointing. I hate how American runners always talk about competing with other nations and when we have a challenger he refuses to do battle.

RUNSC Don't confuse running well for a white guy for having a race your p.b suggests. You may agree with the wimpy way he ran due to conditions but remember he didn't even beat Ritz, a man with a far slower p.b. Ritz ran well for his p.b, Hall didn't.

Everyone built him up and he didn't even go for it. This thread is about choking and thats what Hall did.

Like I said, and I think most fans agree, I would have rather he went for it and died than sat off and never even challenged.