Any explanation for Leo Manzano's DNF at Pre this weekend?

Has it been mentioned in the other thread yet that a possible reason why Manzano is no longer sponsored by ANYONE is because he waved around the Mexican Flag wearing a USA Singlet at the Olympics? That is something sponsors HATE with a passion

I was sitting at the finish line first row and watched him cross and the results on the stadium scoreboard had him in 4:00.04 as I commented to my friends "Well Leo blew having every finisher under sub 4 again"

RunWild wrote:

Has it been mentioned in the other thread yet that a possible reason why Manzano is no longer sponsored by ANYONE is because he waved around the Mexican Flag wearing a USA Singlet at the Olympics? That is something sponsors HATE with a passion

Actually, sponsors LOVE that sort of thing with a passion. If you: (a) take the number of jingoistic idiots who were so bothered by Manzano's act that it tarnished Nike's image in some way, and (b) compare that to the number of everyone else (especially including Mexican and Mexican American viewers) who were inspired enough by Manzano's act for it to have enhanced Nike's image, then Nike had a pretty huge net gain when all was said and done.

If Nike could stand by people like Lance Armstrong, Tiger Woods and and Michael Vick for as long as they did; trust me, they would have had NO PROBLEM whatsoever with Manzano. Because like I said, he made more fans than he lost. Easily.

RuKiddingMe!! wrote:

Like Leo, Shannon, J.Cook, and crew.

Have you ever met John Cook? If so, I doubt you'd like him.

RunWild wrote:

Has it been mentioned in the other thread yet that a possible reason why Manzano is no longer sponsored by ANYONE is because he waved around the Mexican Flag wearing a USA Singlet at the Olympics? That is something sponsors HATE with a passion

I don't think that has anything to do with it. Nike has also dropped Olympic Long Jump gold medallist Greg Rutherford and there were no flag issues there.

Plus lots of people have had multiple flags. Meb had an Eritrean flag:

Marion Jones had a Belize flag:

On and on.

orbitboy wrote:

A Duck wrote:

What's not funny is that he is not sponsored.

That sucks.

I wonder if his age and inconsistency fed into that.

I doubt that the Mexican flag had anything to do with it.

More likely factoring in age and future performance, budget, and number of up and coming runners desired to sign...

Of course we'll never know.

It seems pretty obvious to me that Manzano and his agent believe that a silver medal @ London is worth more than Nike does. His contract came up, and he asked for too much money, just like Meb did.

For all the sponsorship NIKE does and all the crap they take when someone is cut, I don't see other shoe companies stepping up to really capture the opportunity to gain a medalist.

Manzano's lack of any sponsor is a real head scratcher. I believe he still wears NIKE products and always has. If NIKE still has an offer for him he should take it.

Perhaps they know that his passport is not in order, if you know what I'm saying.

Leo has a few real stinkers every year.

Inevitably follows a bad race with an excellent one.

Expect him to shine at the OT

PeterPeterPumpkinEater wrote:

Perhaps an explanation was given elsewhere on LetsRun. Why did Leo DNF at Pre this weekend?

He has always had difficulty with Eugene's pollen. No news here.

RunWild wrote:

Has it been mentioned in the other thread yet that a possible reason why Manzano is no longer sponsored by ANYONE is because he waved around the Mexican Flag wearing a USA Singlet at the Olympics? That is something sponsors HATE with a passion

Actually a sponsor SHOULDN'T hate it. Mexico, and Mexican Americans, are a market also. Why limit yourself to just the US? At first, I didn't really like what he did but now it doesn't bother me too much. I just can't see a major international sponsor getting majorly upset over that and dropping him.

Hopefully he picks up a sponsor soon. He does not need that distraction while training.

rojo wrote:

RunWild wrote:

Has it been mentioned in the other thread yet that a possible reason why Manzano is no longer sponsored by ANYONE is because he waved around the Mexican Flag wearing a USA Singlet at the Olympics? That is something sponsors HATE with a passion

I don't think that has anything to do with it. Nike has also dropped Olympic Long Jump gold medallist Greg Rutherford and there were no flag issues there.

Plus lots of people have had multiple flags. Meb had an Eritrean flag:

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=1097210

Marion Jones had a Belize flag:

http://www.7newsbelize.com/sstory.php?nid=3013

On and on.

Rojo clearly you have no idea what sponsors like and don't like. Please inform yourself

joho wrote:

Actually a sponsor SHOULDN'T hate it. Mexico, and Mexican Americans, are a market also. Why limit yourself to just the US? At first, I didn't really like what he did but now it doesn't bother me too much. I just can't see a major international sponsor getting majorly upset over that and dropping him.

Hopefully he picks up a sponsor soon. He does not need that distraction while training.

If Leo's trying to maximize his market appeal, he should drop the US and Mexican flags, and cary Chinese and Indian flags, instead. That'd appeal to more than a third of the world's population.

He can't handle fast paced races. That's why he stinks in DL meets. But the upside is almost all championship races go slow for most of the race and kick. Right up is alley!

He did finish in 4:00.04 wrote:

I was sitting at the finish line first row and watched him cross and the results on the stadium scoreboard had him in 4:00.04 as I commented to my friends "Well Leo blew having every finisher under sub 4 again"

Seconded....def saw his 4:etc. on the board after the finish.....long after the finish due to their "glitch" in posting the times.....as for pollen - there was a lot of white, cotton-y shit flying around in the Eugene air......

"Although listed as DNF at #Preclassic, @Leomanzano did indeed finish the Bowerman Mile in around 4:00-flat. We're trying to get his time..."

From David Monti's twitter. Re-tweeted by Manzano.

ColoMaster wrote:

He can't handle fast paced races. That's why he stinks in DL meets. But the upside is almost all championship races go slow for most of the race and kick. Right up is alley!

Yes, his forte is sit and kick, but he can run a fast paced race. His pr is faster than centro's and lomong's, but he is just incredibly inconsistent.

The funny thing watching Manzano run is that he's last, and looks like he's sprinting his guts out to try to keep up with the guys in front of him, who look like they are cruising.

Don't know how he does it.

Karma Police wrote:

The funny thing watching Manzano run is that he's last, and looks like he's sprinting his guts out to try to keep up with the guys in front of him, who look like they are cruising.

Don't know how he does it.

This is a great explanation for Leo Manzano's DNF at Pre this weekend.

Thanks.

Has anyone considered that Manzano doesn't have a sponsor because corporations are gutless lifeless entities who ultimately only care about their shareholders.

The silver was great and all. But the first time a runner achieves something like that it only puts you on the radar screen for endorsements. I can easily see somebody like Nike looking at Manzano and concluding that he has almost zero chance to medal in 4 years and don't like his inconsistent performances in the past. In short, its just not worth the risk.