17 yr old Female Miler runs an INCREDIBLE debut Marathon

It would be 24

Jonks wrote:

trollism wrote:

Not bad for a 23 year old.

probably closer to the truth.

Africa isn't trapped in a time warp that prevents them having the knowledge to document and know when they are know having children- this is 2009 not 1999. Sure there will be a small percentage that may not know but for the MOST part all births are now documented on time. THE BELOW EXCUSE is probably the oldest and lamest excuse in regards to why young Africans are posting impressive peformances:

PBR33 wrote:

It would be 24

Jonks wrote:

probably closer to the truth.

No. We know they're not trapped in a time-warp.

But that's the excuse used (by the Africans) when the frauds turn up at the age-group championships every year.

These countries know very little other than to lie and cheat.

I seriously wonder what the 17yr old Merima Mohammed could run on a flat course like Berlin or Chicago with rabbits for her? 2:27-2:29 certainly would be within her capabilities this year judging from her debut on less than flat course with little competition.

Regardless of whether she is 17 or 23 or some other age, for a young runner to post the 1500m and marathon times she has posted is quite impressive - both in terms of range and talent. And if she's basically gone from being a 1500m track racer to this kind of marathon time in such a short period of time and with no races at intermediate distances (half marathon, 15k) that's doubly impressive.

tilastopaja has her in their database 5 times.

3-1500 results.

1 half marathon result in 75:33

1 marathon result.

arthur lydiard used to reccommend 1 long run of 22 miles for all his runners 800 meters and up, and he said it was good to run a marathon during base training, snell ran a 1:44.3 for 800 meter run 6 weeks after a marathon.

ethiopians tend to try to avoid the 800 and 1500. kutre dulecha a sub 4 minute 1500 runner switched to the marathon and she runs about 2:30 each time. meskerem legesse ran a 2:01 indoor world junior record at age 16 and a 4:03 for 1500 as a junior, now still only 21 she runs 35 minute 10k races and 75 minute half marathons, so these are 2 examples of runners who would be much better at 800 and 1500 switching to longer races. t. dibaba to my knowledge has never even raced an 800, 1500 or mile and defar's 4:06 personal best in the open 1500 is a couple of tenths slower than her last 1500 of her 14:12 for 5k.

Is this girl a part of the Kostre lab yet?

today she won the ottawa marathon in 2:28.19

marathon requires work wrote:

I'm not convinced the Africans, esp. young African females, are willing to put in the work equivalent to their countrymen and Caucasian and Asian females. Talk all you want about how great they COULD BE, but the fast African women who have gone to the marathon haven't lived up to their hype. They come and they go.

With the exception of Lornah Kiplagat, I guess?

And as opposed to who? Goucher?

If you've ever been to Africa, which from your post I doubt you have, you will know that east African girls and women don't have nearly the opportunity that men do to train in a dedicated fashion. Yet.

But this is improving, and the results (as noted in a post above) are likely to leave us in the US completely in the dust...

she ran 2:23.06 in the toronto waterfront marathon today, #2 on the all time junior list.

she is 18 now and will be a junior until january 1st 2012.

this was her 4th marathon,

This is like Nike outsourcing their shoe manufacturing. It's cheaper to get the product outside of the U.S., so they invested their money elsewhere.

It's not that unprecedented for 1500m runners to perform well or have potential to perform well in the marathon. Qu Yunxia famously ran 1:55, 3:50 and 2:24 IN THE SAME YEAR as a 21 year old (drugs can't explain that level of dynamism). Even the likes of Sonia O' Sullivan could have produced a world class marathon had she moved up distance a few years earlier.

Nevertheless, it is impressive for sure.

2:23:06 for a female as a lifetime personal best is impressive, 2:23:06 in just her 4th marathon and at age 18 is mindboggling! Congratulations M.M.

I know that often young athletes often don't continue to improve drastically until their 30's; however, I feel this young lady will have a long career. She's durable and will surpass Uta Pippig record for sub 2:30 marathon and yes I think she will eventually hit a huge performance spike within the next 4 years and threaten Paula's 2:15:25!