RE: Why isn't Letsrun up in arms about a 26-year old breaking an NCAA record?

The high school and collegiate records are sort of meaningless because of the quirky restrictions that you have to be in high school or college at the time.

Only the overall records and junior records (which are based on age, not association to a high school) mean anything.

Ricky Sanchez wrote:

here we go now wrote:

26 is pretty old for college, but it's the 26 year old HIGH SCHOOL kids that we have a problem with.

Let's be honest. Your problem is with kids from Africa breaking American records. There is a word for that. Oh yeah. RACIST

It is not racisit... The record is an AMERICAN record. Not an AFRICAN record not LITHUANIAN record. They have high school records in their countries...and we have our COUNTRIES records. When the two are combined they are WORLD RECORDS. Tough concept to grasp but you can figure it out bud.

I think its great we are giving them an opportunity to learn and live a better life but the records belong to American born kids just like Ethiopian or Kenyan records belong to their perspective kids

Ninja Runner wrote:

This, I find it disgusting that highschool associations will take these people in HIGHSCHOOL. The problem seems to stem mostly from either California or the North East.

My big problem is not necessarily some adult beating children in a race or sports in general, its foreign ADULTS going to school with HIGHSCHOOL aged children in the US and the communities that seem to think this is acceptable.

It only becomes acceptable when the age of the vast majority of students reaches 18 years old, like in College.

If I found out there was a 20 year old competing at my daughter's school on her track team I would take her off the track team. So would a number of the other parents.

I'm surprised parents don't make this a big deal, because it is a big deal.

It is people like you that disgust me. Stop trying to justify your narrow viewpoint.

1. "its foreign ADULTS going to school with HIGHSCHOOL aged children in the US"

- So it's okay if American adults go to school with high school children by god forbid if they are "foreign". I hear American adults are the symbol of righteousness. Frankly I wouldn't my kids going to school with a nut job like you ether.

2. "It only becomes acceptable when the age of the vast majority of students reaches 18 years old"

- So 18 is the arbitrary number that children automatically cross this invisible line and all of a sudden become adults?

I Have somewhere to go but I come to terms with the fact your probably a racist, ignorant human being.

25% of all 30 years now live with their parents. This is a trend based on the declining economy.

I asked this same questino last night and the post was deleted SMH

Junior Records are iffy as well because there is often debate about the true age of the athlete.

World Records are iffy because you cannot prove there was no drug use.

I'll admit it is kind of quirky that the equivalent of a 7th year senior would be eligible for an NCAA record.

The general rule is that you have 5 years to complete 4 seasons.

The clock freezes for some exceptions like military duty and missions.

To me the idea of college competition is that they are kids transitioning into adults and are not yet at their physical peak for performace.

A 24/25 year-old has a physical maturity advantage over the other college competitors.

But these are the rules, so this is the record.

Fernandez can always get the record back and make people happy.

I'm not up in arms about a 24 year old breaking the NCAA record because said 24 year old isn't doing anything wrong. He went on a mission, came back, and is now competing. NCAA rules make provisions for military service, charity work, and religious missions.

I doubt Batty went on his Mormon mission in order to further his running career. As for Lalang, it's possible he's somewhat older than his birth certificate states. That doesn't bother me either. Hopefully, having to race against him will instill the same attitude in his competitors as the WSU or UTEP Kenyans instilled in American collegians in the 70s.

I think worrying about the "high school records" is a waste of time. The Junior qualification is standard elsewhere, and provides us with a better comparison as far as other countries are concerned.

Sidenote- to the poster who mentioned it was silly that Batty lost to Centro, who is both younger and in college, and still got credited with the "collegiate record" because Centro is a pro, it is more proper to say Batty has the "NCAA indoor mile record." Because the NCAA competition dominates collegiate athlete participation, people often say "the collegiate record" which is a little misleading. As others have noted, professional athletes like Morceli have run faster and been in an American college, but that isn't how it works.

toro wrote:

Fernandez can always get the record back and make people happy.

LOL

Ah, Suleiman. Had beers with him after an indoor meet two years in a row. Great guy.

Way old news wrote:

Popxico wrote:

Huh.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suleiman_Nyambui

End Story wrote:

Ricky Sanchez wrote:

[quote]here we go now wrote:

26 is pretty old for college, but it's the 26 year old HIGH SCHOOL kids that we have a problem with.

Let's be honest. Your problem is with kids from Africa breaking American records. There is a word for that. Oh yeah. RACIST

It is not racisit... The record is an AMERICAN record. Not an AFRICAN record not LITHUANIAN record. They have high school records in their countries...and we have our COUNTRIES records. When the two are combined they are WORLD RECORDS. Tough concept to grasp but you can figure it out bud.

Actually, it is not an American record. It is a college record. It is a high school record. It is not limited to American citizens and white foreigners

Maybe another division should be in place in HS, that of 19 yrs or older. Allow everybody taking HS classes to compete, but keep the playing fields level.

There are reasons that kids compete in age groups, that is to enable them to run with a competitive field, which is an important thing developmentally to keep them interested, and to keep them from getting demoralized.

An 18-year-old is still a kid, athletically, if only just--a 17-year-old, certainly.

A 25-year-old is not.

It's not a matter of racism, it's just national pride. Kenya wouldn't like it if Alan Webb (circa '07) went to college for a year in Nairobi and broke the national 800m record. Are they a bunch of racists too? Why is it only racism when Europeans or Americans want some semblance of national pride, not Africans or Asians?

I ran for an NCAA div 1 school in the late 70s, and left the team with a year of eligibility unclaimed. I think I'm gonna go back now and compete.

The funny thing is, I have this repeating dream where I do just that!

I agree, it is not a matter of racism. Foreign students come over for a better education and opportunity in the US. But, when those students (high school) are much older than those they compete against, I believe it is not very fair. What if you threw a 38 yr old into the master division. I bet there would be plenty to argue the point that that person has an unfair advantage in the division. Why can we not do this for high school running? Some athletes might get discouraged when they have to compete against someone much older. It is not the fact that a high school senior is 18 and the foreign student is 19, but the fact that a 19 yr old is also competing against 17, 16, 15 and 14 yr old kids. That makes a difference. It doesn't matter if they are from African, Europe, Asia, South America, etc.

As for collegiate runners, all is fair. But. I do believe in having AR Collegiate Records and Overall. Just to keep track of American collegiate progression during the years.

name3 wrote: Let me guess. Some of your best friends are black...

Let me guess, all of your friends are white runner dudes. You really need to get out more and experience the "real" world, not just the "small" white world you've been trapped in all of your life.

There are always going to be things that aren't fair. It is fair that the kids at academically tough schools like Princeton who are staying up late studying their brains out have to compete against kids from big state schools where the academics no doubt reflect the fact that the average SAT score of incoming students is 300 points lower per section? Is it fair that runners whose college doesn't even have a track have to compete against kids from the Univ. of Oregon which has world class facilities?

And for high schoolers--is it fair that a kid at a normal public school, where he has to wear himself out running with the team in low level conference meets, has to compete against a prep school kid who almost functions as a pro, since he has a former Olympian as a private coach who takes him to only big meets or open college meets with better competition? Seriously, read the blogs of some of the top high schoolers and tell me if their training even remotely resembles what the average public school kid gets from the social studies teacher.

In the end, you just have to rum faster.

^ *run

really? where are some of these blogs? i'm interested!

Mr. Tibbs wrote:

Actually, it is not an American record. It is a college record. It is a high school record. It is not limited to American citizens and white foreigners

This just isn't true. Otherwise the record would be the 12:53 that some 17 or 18 year old Kenyan ran indoors 3 or 4 years ago. That record that just went down was the United States of America high school indoor 5k records.