The amazing GERMAN FERNANDEZ: how will he do at World Junior X Championships?

German has to race 9kenyans,9ethiopians,maybe 9more kenyans running for Qatar!which would be a joke,maybe9morrocans,afew more good africans maybe from Eritrea and Uganda.Afew top aussies and Norway have a really good guy who is only17. So top20would be quite a good result.

I know that the young man is only 18, but his running ability is really impressive. With that in mind I would like to do him a favor and tell him that he should tke out those stupid looking earrings.

Look, I said I know he is 18, so I'm not villifying him for wearing them. But I hope he will just trust me that he will look back and shake his head later in life. Just trying to help.

Based on past performances, I believe Fernandez is ahead of pace where Ritz (3rd in 2001) and Tegenkamp (5th in 2001) were racing come World Cross, so I would expect Fernandez to conted for a medal...

USA Cross Country History

(since 1997, top USA Finisher)

1997 - 51) Abdul Alizindani

1998 - 20) Ryan Shay

1999 - 24) Fasil Bizuneh

2000 - 28) Franklin Sanchez

2001 - 3) Dathan Ritzenhein

2002 - 30) Rod Koborsi

2003 - 26) Billy Nelson

2004 - 34) Ryan Deak

2005 - 20) Galen Rupp

2006 - 34) Kiehl Uhl

2007 - 56) Kenny Klotz

2008 - 25) German Fernandez

I say between 3rd and 5th place! top 10 at least

BSG wrote:

Based on past performances, I believe Fernandez is ahead of pace where Ritz (3rd in 2001) and Tegenkamp (5th in 2001) were racing come World Cross, so I would expect Fernandez to conted for a medal...

I'm not so sure Fernandez is much farther ahead than Ritz and Teg were. Ritz was 4th at cross, which is about what we expected Fernandez to finish. Another thing to take note is that there are more fast africans now than there were 8 years ago. However, Ritz WAS racing Bekele himself.

I could definitely see Fernandez with a top 3-5 finish, however I wouldn't be very surprised if he was "only" 10th.

I hate you more than ever!

VIPAM wrote:

We all knew that German Fernandez was a gifted runner from his high school performances in 2008; however, did any of you expect his early 2009 performances (3:56yi mile AJR, runaway win at USA Jr X-country, 7:47.97 AJR 3000m). I for one am amazed at how he is developing so much faster than I anticipated and its a wonderful surprise. CONGRATS German Fernandez!!! He certainly will be able to tangle with anyone in NCAA Indoor Championships or World Junior X-Country Championships.

I hope he does go to this year World Junior X-Country Championships healthy. Do you think German could grab TOP THREE at this years World Junior X-Championships? If he is healthy and participate I think he definitely have a shot at top 3 and even a decent shot to win!

LukeTheRunner wrote:

fast wrote:

here he says he wants top 15

http://www.flotrack.org/videos/coverage/view_video/234624/147465-german-fernandez-after-747

don't you think 15th would be kinda disappointing? shoot, i'd like to see him top 5!

Top American finish in the past five years was 20th (Rupp).

To me Rupp didn't seem the cross country talent that he is now until the past couple of years. German is obviously a great cross country runner, and is eclipsing marks on the track that Rupp made at his age. So I think German should be hoping for at least top 10 as a goal. 15th is still great, since some of the guys he competes against are a few years from peaking.

Also, I had forgotten that German was 25th last year. I'm sure he has gained a lot of strength and experience during his first fall of NCAA cross country.

This is his second time there. Ritz was 3rd and Teg was 5th. German should really want to finish in this range considering he was a much better 2 miler (the strength track race for high schoolers) than both of them at this stage.

Donnie Diznuck wrote:

German should really want to finish in this range considering he was a much better 2 miler (the strength track race for high schoolers) than both of them at this stage.

I wouldnt say that German is MUCH better than Ritz was in high school, but he is better at it, I'll give you that. And I'm not so sure that German was better than even Rupp in highschool. I mean, Rupp split like 8:42 in his 5k record in high school.

On the topic of comparing him to ritz and teg wasn't there some adverse conditions in that race? Like cold and muddy?

It was cold and extremely muddy when Ritz was 3rd. Obviously this would skew the race in favor of the stronger runners.

Also of note, while he was technically racing Bekele, Bekele won by nearly a minute. Ritz wasn't anywhere near him.

Kind of funny how I'm already feeling like an old man for knowing things that happened just 8-10 years ago, but...

a) Though I'm huge fans of Ritz and Teg, and they ran phenominal that day, it was an EXTREMELY sloppy, mud-bog day when they were 3rd and 5th. Based on race results prior to, and after that race (compared to their competition), one has to conclude that it played a factor. All I'm saying is that on a fast course, most would agree they may have been more like top 10-15.

b) Rupp's 5K in July? August? after his senior year was a product of popping one off after being professionally coached for 3 years. Big deal. Many of his other performances weren't shizzit. Let's look at the kids that actually had HS coaches and competed- Ritz ran 4:06/8:44/13:44 for 1M/2M/5K...Fernandez ran 4:01/8:34/??. He beat Ritz' times by 5 sec over 1M, 10 sec over 2M...why couldn't he run 10-15 seconds faster over 5K? Of course he could- especially in a race where he's FOLLOWING PEOPLE (a la Rupp in Europe)! GF had 13:30+ last summer if he was...ahem...sponsored by Nike...ahem...

Give me a break, GF is blowing these guys' times away.

Barring injury, GF will take down Rupp's 13:37 AJR and - if he feels like it [on any given day] - will take down his 10K AJR record too. What's 28:15 pace anyway? 4:32? He can run those all day. He'll destroy that record.

At the end of 2009, I think the US junior records will be:

5K- 13:17 (old- 13:37, Rupp)

10K- 27:44 (old- 28:15, Rupp)

Having heard of German's recent success, the Kenyans and Ethiopians will put a team of 22-25 year olds out there and German will finish 13th behind all of them...

BSG wrote:

Based on past performances, I believe Fernandez is ahead of pace where Ritz (3rd in 2001) and Tegenkamp (5th in 2001) were racing come World Cross, so I would expect Fernandez to conted for a medal...

USA Cross Country History

(since 1997, top USA Finisher)

1997 - 51) Abdul Alizindani

1998 - 20) Ryan Shay

1999 - 24) Fasil Bizuneh

2000 - 28) Franklin Sanchez

2001 - 3) Dathan Ritzenhein

2002 - 30) Rod Koborsi

2003 - 26) Billy Nelson

2004 - 34) Ryan Deak

2005 - 20) Galen Rupp

2006 - 34) Kiehl Uhl

2007 - 56) Kenny Klotz

2008 - 25) German Fernandez

didnt bob thomas of the usa win world junior xc in 1974?

world cross HAS DEPTH wrote:

German has to race 9kenyans,9ethiopians,maybe 9more kenyans running for Qatar!which would be a joke,maybe9morrocans,afew more good africans maybe from Eritrea and Uganda.Afew top aussies and Norway have a really good guy who is only17. So top20would be quite a good result.

this year a maximum of 6 runners per country can run each race.

last year they allowed 9 in the mens senior race and 6in every other race, this year they went back to a maximum of 6 runners per country with the top 4 scoring.

He just needs to engage the slingshot.

realism king wrote:

he did'nt look that flash in the 3km to be honest, its hard to be in mile/ 3km shape and xc shape...

He is CAPABLE of a top 5 finish.

But I think he will finish 10-13th.

when he ran the mile he hadn't been training for the mile, so technically he wasn't in 'mile' shape. that's what makes that run even more impressive. he had 8 weeks from when he was injured to when he ran 3:56, and most of it was strength work. you think he would have enough time to recover from an achilles injury and then go straight into getting into mile shape?

he blew away the field at us jr xc champs and still finished in 23:20, for 8k on a xc course. so it's not like he was really being pushed, and that race is how many weeks before worlds? he'll probably be in sub 23 8k shape by the time worlds comes around. or he already might be in that good of shape.

letsrun.com wrote:

If he hits top 15, that is something to be proud of. The African juniors are, in many cases, world class runners already. German may be among the best milers in the field, but 8k XC is a different ball game.