The US beat beat Kenya and Ethiopia in the 5000m team competition

If there was a team competition, wouldn't it have to be like xc where the worse guys don't score. So you'd probably only score 2 of 3. The stanidngs would therefore be:

Ethiopia - 7

Kenya - 10

US - 11

I think this guy is scoring the way the IAAF does the team competition. They score the top 8 place, 8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1.

A better way to score it would be the more traditional way we score track meets at NCAA meets.

10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 (or you could do 10-8-6-4-2-1). Using the NCAA one with 8 scorers, the new team score is.

Ethiopia - 11

Kenya - 9

US - 9

The fact of the matter is the name of the game is medals.

Your average 13:10 type Ryan Hill is probabliy out running 2;08-9 making a living in the marathon.

Rojo, if it was like xc then your slowest guy would act as a pusher on the opposing teams scorers.

The sad thing is that with one day left in the World Championships, Emily Infeld is the only American woman distance runner with a medal. If things go bad in the men's 1500m, she will be the ONLY American distance runner with a medal, male or female.

I think Centro will come through with a medal, though. Even if he does, it will be a pretty disappointing World Championships for American distance runners.

rojo wrote:

10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 (or you could do 10-8-6-4-2-1). Using the NCAA one with 8 scorers, the new team score is.

Ethiopia - 11

Kenya - 9

US - 9

Even I didn't begrudge Farah his 10 points for a UK 2nd.

Team "scores" at the WC/OG are traced through medal counts, geniuses.

You have to be encouraged though. We're continually qualifying 3 guys/women through to the final in most events, and now they are all becoming more competitive (e.g 5-6-7 in 5k and 5-6 in steeple). Even though this meet feels like a step back, I see it as a step forward. A few years ago in each event we maybe had a medal contender, but the other two people usually were not serious contenders. Now our "second tier" guys/women are coming through for 5th place finish (Cabral), bronze medal (Infeld), 6th, 7th in the 5k (True, Hill). So almost all of our runners are now outside medal threats.

If this level of competition holds up, we are going to finally equalize with Kenya and Ethiopia. Each year, our high school guys get faster and faster, and there are more of them at the top levels. Why shouldn't we expect the next generation to exceed what Rupp, Solinsky, Teg, and Ritz did? All of them ran 12:55-13:00 times. If the next generation hits 12:52-12:55, they are continuous medal contenders, unless the Africans get into the 12:35-45 range again. If our steeplers are currently 8:00 (with fall) and sub 8:10, the next generation should be 7:55-8:05. Medal contender every time. Unless of course the Africans start running in the 7:40s.

I'm optimistic that improvement will continue. I don't think our guys are heavily using drugs, or if they are, so are the Kenyans. We are one step behind now so the genetic superiority myth is finally gone. The top guys now really believe they should be medalling and winning, and it's only a matter of time before we have our own version of Farah.

hsdkjfhdskjhf wrote:

I don't think our guys are heavily using drugs, or if they are, so are the Kenyans.

What an asinine statement.

There is no team competition

Rupp was pathetic and made no attempt to win the race.When is he going to realise he does not have a good kick

ukathleticscoach wrote:

There is no team competition

Rupp was pathetic and made no attempt to win the race.When is he going to realise he does not have a good kick

So what can he do about that though!He has to put himself in contention. It's not as if he has a pb 30 seconds quicker than everyone else and can run off the front away from the others.

I don't know what kind of coach you think you are, but if you can't understand this then you clearly need your head in a vice.

El Keniano wrote:

hsdkjfhdskjhf wrote:

I don't think our guys are heavily using drugs, or if they are, so are the Kenyans.

What an asinine statement.

El K-

Don't take it personally, it was poorly phrased as I was trying to write fast. My point is, I don't really think egregious doping is going on right now (at least on the men's side), and if there is, there's no reason to suspect Americans are any more doped than anybody else. I think the playing field is pretty level in regards to drugs (either almost nobody is doping, or many people are microdosing, not necessarily everyone and I didn't mean to single out Kenyans or any particular runner). People are definitely not taking megadoses or we'd be seeing (at least in non-champs races) a lot more sub 13's (and a rash of sub 1250s). The only person who seems suspicious to me is Farah, but the guy who dominates is always going to look different than everyone else.

I'm sorry if I offended Kenya, that was certainly not my intent. I lived with a pro Kenyan marathoner (2:08) back when 2:06:50 was the WR. He was by far the cleanest living person I've ever met and I've always had a ton of respect for Kenyans.

malmo wrote:

Other options wrote:

Nice to see! Probably because of the type of race it was. They are all able to close well in the last mile-k. I mean we qualified 3 in the final for the 1500 so that distance is one of our best right??

Yes, we qualified three for the final in the 1500, AND the 3000sc, AND the 5000, AND the 10,000.

I mentioned this on another thread but it went nowhere.

When was the last time the USA had three men qualify for the finals of the 1500, SC, 5000, and 10000 in the same WCs or Olympic Games? Has is EVER happened? This is a pretty big deal. I've looked up finals results going back to 2008 then jumped to 83, 84 and 88. It didn't happen in any of those years.

Alan

Meb FTW wrote:

Here's another viewpoint to the same stat: ALL three Americans beat the ALL of the following hobbyjoggers:

Isiah Koech 12:48

Edwin Soi 12:51

Albert Rop 12:51

Imane Merga 12:53

Reason to be proud indeed.

What season did any of those guys run those times? Give me a break.

Man, big of you to apologise so I can't stay mad at you. So sorry for my prickliness, but even the most thick-skinned (see that Caleb Ndiku interview) have just about had it with the blanket accusation that Kenyans win because they dope.

Again, thanks for explaining yourself. Pretty rare on LetsRun.