Talented yes , oly medalist ? Long shot at best.
Great effort Friday , even paced time trial with a kick at the end.
Rough , uneven paced bashing about of championship races he has yet to learn.
Closing the gap as you say yes is very impressive , nice to see him in the hunt consistently.
ukathleticscoach wrote:
That's my prediction
I think he has a lot more to give than he showed here
UKAC, you're faith in Rupp is looking good right now. Hell of a race yesterday. Gotta admit, when U.S. cut to 3 laps to go, and I did the quick math in my head on his pace, I certainly thought "holy shit" to myself. Guess I should not be that surprised after his 5k when he outkicked Merga. But 26:48 is scary good.
However, I still don't think he'll medal next year. With Rupp, he will need to have the perfect race on the perfect day (weather-wise. Any pollen and it won't work for him. Too hot? no good). And the africans love running in london, so I think they will be fielding even stronger teams than normal (where some of their top guys normally stay on the roads and skip the wc's/olympics, I think more of those guys will shoot for the track in 2012). And even though Rupp has shown a good kick, I still don't love his chances in a very tactical race.
So.... he will be in the mix, and a legit medal contender. I just don't think he will pull it off. And look at Solinsky this year. He was supposed to be definite medal contender, and didn't even make to the starting line, after years of perfect health. Stuff happens.
coach d wrote:I predict that next year Uceny will have a gold to go with her DL jackpot
sadly, i fear she will come up against 3'55 ruskies next year
well yesterday it was over the last 550-600 meters.
haha really?? wrote:
Just wait for all the insecure losers to gleefully tell you how wrong you are and how much Rupp sucks.
Yeah. Don't forget the self-haters. They'll be in there too, telling us Rupp isn't worth crap and then hoping their remarks will allow them another chance to blow Prof. Scatstein in the Soc dept., since they showed how much they despise white people. LOLLOLOLOLLLLL
Oh, one more thing:
He won't beat Bekele or Farah. You have to admit the odds of that are extremely low. So that leaves him ONE medal slot. The odds that one Kenyan won't take that slot over him are low.
IN the 5k, you'd be likely to have Lagat, Farah, and maybe Bekele again. So again, either one or ZERO medal slots for him.
The odds are stacked against him.
ukathleticscoach wrote:
Now it's looking more likely!
Rupp has just proved that it is possible to keep up with the East African's. ok he got outsprinted but 5 years ago any American or European would have been lapped in that race.
It's been a long time coming but he's just proved how talented he is.
You do realize your too astute for this board, right?
Sir Lance-alot wrote:
Oh, one more thing:
He won't beat Bekele or Farah. You have to admit the odds of that are extremely low. So that leaves him ONE medal slot. The odds that one Kenyan won't take that slot over him are low.
IN the 5k, you'd be likely to have Lagat, Farah, and maybe Bekele again. So again, either one or ZERO medal slots for him.
The odds are stacked against him.
The odds that bekele AND farah will both line up on the same line at the oly finals next year are pretty low. One of them will be injured/sick/focusing on another race/not feeling it. And Rupp is capable of beating farah if he has an off day. I admit the odds of rupp winning a medal next year are only about 25-30% though
long dong silver wrote:
The odds that bekele AND farah will both line up on the same line at the oly finals next year are pretty low. One of them will be injured/sick/focusing on another race/not feeling it.
Not really. I'd say the odds that Bekele and Farah are both healthy enough to run good races next year at the olympics are just as likely as Rupp being healthy. If you think Rupp's long stretch of injury-free running guarantees next year he will be healthy, again, look at Sol this year.
And I am VERY sure that neither Bekele nor Farah will be "focusing on another race" instead of the Olympic finals in 10k and/or 5k. I can see it now: Mo Farah tells his British fans he is skipping the Olympic 10k/5k to run a fall marathon. 'Sorry london 2012, I gots'd to get paid.' Sure.
But we agree on the odds being low for Rupp getting a medal next year. Though he certainly will be close.