Now they fail in the women's marathon. Kemboi will sort this mess out tonight.
Now they fail in the women's marathon. Kemboi will sort this mess out tonight.
The failure is simple , once the federation heads get involved its a mess all around. Not he best team for the 10k etc. athletes cannot say out loud the frustration as they would get penalized for other events. As long as the federation head are involved and money is in the picture Kenya looses ts edge.
who should Kenya have sent instead? I see no better runners.
Tea Leaf wrote: Hundreds of athletics fans in Eldoret town for the second day watched as the country failed to win any medal in the men’s 10, 000 m final on Sunday in the ongoing 2012 Olympics.
You want to see the Kenyan fans recoil in disbelief? Watch today as Cabral and Jager take two places on the podium in the steeplechase final!
Bill Simmons has coined the notion in basketball of the "irrational confidence guy." Kemboi is the Kenyan "irrational confidence guy" who has good reason to be confident. In the LetsRun prediction contest I predicted Farah, Rupp and the wrong Bekele, but in the Steeplechase it is hard to bet against Kemboi. Jager, however, if the first round did not take it out of him, has a great chance to medal even if fourth or fifth seems more likely (I do have him for third in the prediction contest).
Nappy Roots wrote:
Let's put things in perspective in way a that normalizes this "shock" and offers a bit more insight. Kenya has become a victim of it's own politics and unusually weird decision-making related to their team choices.
1. They sent a very inexperienced Badoki who is talented and races well against collegians/guys in the Standford Invite. However, he lacks that international experience you'd like to see from an Olympian. He should be ecstatic with his overall place amongst these top guys.
2. They also sent a guy who's best running has come on the roads. Essentially, Kiprop's a great road racer (not even Kenya's best to boot) who threw the dice and tried to make the transition on the track. We all knew that when the jogging was over and the real racing began, he had NO SHOT of hanging with those surges. You're half-marathon abilities mean nothing when it's time to shift gears with guys who can close in 1:55 at the end of a 10k if needed.
3. Masai. Another strong cross country/road racer with pretty solid track credentials who had no legitimate chance at medaling. Yes, he's run fast in the past but DL racing and championship style races are night and day. He was the only guy on the Kenyan team who may have had a shot if the pace was fast from the beginning. Poor tactics and "hope" gave him no realistic chance.
So again, Kenya should not be dissappointed at all in how their team performed in the 10k. If anything, do a better job at choosing your BEST runners, decrease the politics, and attact the most talented back to the track. I wouldn't be surprised if we saw something similar happen in the steeplechase. Jager is no joke, the French guy hasn't been caught doping and is SUPER aggressive, and the Ethiopian guy is dangerous.
olympic year......cant dope over there in Kenya
that will be pt of it for sure ...to me didnt seem the best guys running , but even Epiopia messed up with their 3rd runner instead of Desisa , problem is when ego's of federationand a few managers get involved it all gets f...ed up
shogun wrote:
Now they fail in the women's marathon. Kemboi will sort this mess out tonight.
I truly hope so Shogun.
We need an uplifter. We need it today if we have to keep up with our Ethiopian neighbours.
All is not well in Nairobi camp.
AK are a disaster. Need complete overhaul. Kemboi needs to bring it, big time, tonight.
I thought they would sacrifice someone and send him out in 13:30.
Instead they all hung back and left without a medal or the fast pace that they needed to give themselves chance.
Maybe they were counting on Ethiopia to make it fast.
Even Tadesse didn't make it fast when he lead.
Every single African was hoping someone else would make it fast and no one had an actual plan to send someone out.
For Kenya not to medal in the 10k is disappointing, but not unexpected. For all their distance prowess, they've typically only managed bronze medals and not much more in these championship races. Of course they have amazing depth at the event, but they've lacked consistent racers with a good kick and a killer instinct a la the Ethiopians and Farah, so they've been shut out of gold for almost a half century.
I expect they'll have a similar disappointment in the 5k, Koech has a decent shot to medal but it'll take a lot to supplant Farah, the Gebs, Lagat and Rupp who are good tactical racers. It'll be interesting to see if they actually do make the final honest.
Wilson`Kiprop got tripped and lost his shoe. He would have got a medal if that hadn't happened
Nappy Roots wrote:
Let's put things in perspective in way a that normalizes this "shock" and offers a bit more insight. Kenya has become a victim of it's own politics and unusually weird decision-making related to their team choices.
1. They sent a very inexperienced Badoki who is talented and races well against collegians/guys in the Standford Invite. However, he lacks that international experience you'd like to see from an Olympian. He should be ecstatic with his overall place amongst these top guys.
2. They also sent a guy who's best running has come on the roads. Essentially, Kiprop's a great road racer (not even Kenya's best to boot) who threw the dice and tried to make the transition on the track. We all knew that when the jogging was over and the real racing began, he had NO SHOT of hanging with those surges. You're half-marathon abilities mean nothing when it's time to shift gears with guys who can close in 1:55 at the end of a 10k if needed.
3. Masai. Another strong cross country/road racer with pretty solid track credentials who had no legitimate chance at medaling. Yes, he's run fast in the past but DL racing and championship style races are night and day. He was the only guy on the Kenyan team who may have had a shot if the pace was fast from the beginning. Poor tactics and "hope" gave him no realistic chance.
So again, Kenya should not be dissappointed at all in how their team performed in the 10k. If anything, do a better job at choosing your BEST runners, decrease the politics, and attact the most talented back to the track. I wouldn't be surprised if we saw something similar happen in the steeplechase. Jager is no joke, the French guy hasn't been caught doping and is SUPER aggressive, and the Ethiopian guy is dangerous.
Masai has a WC medal, hard to knock him as inexperienced or unable to get it done on the track. Granted that was Tadesse ground everyone to dust, but he still has hardware.
I think after this the Africans are going to have to totally rethink their racing strategy. They've been able to get away with the "sit-and-kick" method for decades, since Yifter arguably, because for a very long time, no non-African distance runner was able to drop the last quarter splits they were. That's all changed now.
I think we'll start seeing more trying to front run and make it an honest pace.
I'll be very interested in watching the 5,000 final, to see if the men's 10,000 results will impact at all how the Africans race it. They now realize Farah and Rupp can't be run down so easily, plus they'll have Lagat who's always a threat.
We may see a fast 5,000.
A Duck wrote:
JCOH wrote:I just hope all of east africa takes notice and remembers Rupp's name.
Remember the doosh who posted a few weeks back that the African runners don't even know Rupp's name?
Yea, that was infuriating.
Kenyan news sources, such as the one referenced at the beginning of the thread, show how ignorant and backward Kenyan majority opinion is regarding athletics.
A corrupt system and lazy, stupid, power hungry Athletics Kenya administrators is combined with an inability to develop athletes from the greatest talent pool the world has ever seen.
Bekele an arch-rival to Kenya? What a joke. Kenenisa has disposed of Kenyans easily throughout his career. The perceived "rivalry" is nothing other than Kenyan jealousy.
Athletics Kenya is a disgrace to African people everywhere.
toro wrote:
Every single African was hoping someone else would make it fast and no one had an actual plan to send someone out.
Not every single African. The slow pace was actually the Ethiopian plan "Our plan was to run up to the 5,000m as slow as possible and to make it fast in the second phase of the race."..."It was because of the failure of our plan and tactic that we didn't win the race." - Tariku Bekele
Basically they wanted to go really slow then really fast, but they only managed to ratchet it down to 13:25 pace, rather than 13:05 pace.
Brianruns10 wrote:
I think after this the Africans are going to have to totally rethink their racing strategy. They've been able to get away with the "sit-and-kick" method for decades, since Yifter arguably, because for a very long time, no non-African distance runner was able to drop the last quarter splits they were. That's all changed now.
I think we'll start seeing more trying to front run and make it an honest pace.
I'll be very interested in watching the 5,000 final, to see if the men's 10,000 results will impact at all how the Africans race it. They now realize Farah and Rupp can't be run down so easily, plus they'll have Lagat who's always a threat.
We may see a fast 5,000.
I hope we see a fast 5000. I think the East Africans in the 10000 did not have the confidence to take it out. Ever if they did, I do not think it would have made a difference. Rupp and Farah are in 26:40s shape and have the best kicks. No one appears to be in 26:30s shape.
Koech has a shot at a medal in the 5000 but if he wants a gold then he and his team will need to really drive the pace and risk blowing up. Can he drive to the line from far out like Bekele did in Beijing?
My prediction:
Farah 13:05
Gebremeskel(sp?)
Gebrihiwot (sp?)
Koech
Rupp
Anyone else read the comments below the article? Fascinating look into fan reactions.
"Best race of his life for THE AMERICAN..."
A Duck wrote:
JCOH wrote:I just hope all of east africa takes notice and remembers Rupp's name.
Remember the doosh who posted a few weeks back that the African runners don't even know Rupp's name?
Remember the LR poster who said Rupp might be this years 'Unknown African'?
Well Done Sir (or Madam)!