Renato Canova shares his wisdom with LetsRun.com

I like his enthusiasm and knowledge and how up to date he is on individuals.

But I will say, comparing the 1993 Chinese women who have admitted to doping, and their coach Junren barred from coaching as several of his athletes were caught doping, to today's athletes running 4:36 is not going to get him any credibility. That's a mistake.

Perhaps he is correct that a club system will get their athletes down to 4:10 or 4:05, which is more world class and clean, but certainly saying "3:50 in 1993" is to me a red flag.

Some of the Kenyans that did not perform well, he doesn't have great reason as to why, saying, "didn't run well in trials...or all season..." just says that they didn't run well then....because? Off the drugs?

Kenyan has come under great scrutiny for doping. Athletes are getting caught, administrators or getting caught in corruption. I think they didn't perform well because they were not dirty.

Look at Jama Aden's athletes. Somehow he gets raided, 22 athletes are in the room, drug paraphenalia is confiscated and 20 of 22 athletes are tested. Turns out they all test negative. He gets off.

Mysteriously his prize athlete, the one to beat the Chinese-doped performance of 3:50, suddenly can't run any more....ankle this....terrible performance that.

Canova is a smart man, but to suggest that Kenyans don't dope because it doesn't help them is preposterous. They have been caught doping and hell on wheels, they win everything.

Interesting that the women who ran the 10,000m in 29:17 is Ethiopian, where WADA and the IAAF still haven't marched into with the same vigor as they have Kenya.

Canova claimed that EPO makes East African's blood too viscose.

How does he know that? Try a little?

...should have done some editing....whatever...

Who cares about world records. Fast guys in the western world, who may only be a few seconds off of world records, and are still medaling in major world championships, make a hell of a lot more money than the same caliber athletes in places like East Africa.

Cento, Galen, and Jager, are all smart guys. They play the system, race competitively, and show up when it matters most. The vast majority of the guys winning diamond leagues left and right are simply young guns who go to the well, get a two year contract, and then they disappear. There is nothing wrong with this, giving the fact that even a short-lived career can sustain a struggling family in East-Africa for years. But in order to be truly successful in distance running, meaning you have a long career into your early thirties, small yet bold performances are required over time to yield a tremendous result in years time. The very few East Africans that accomplished this include Bekele, Gebrselassie, Kipchoge, and probably others that I forgot.

This is also seen with Centro, Galen, Jager, and quite frankly, Mo Farah. A lot of people tend to forget that Mo is 33 years old! Simply put, westerners are making money, chasing dreams, and still finishing in the top three in the world, consistently.

jviv wrote:

Jager fell because he was too tired to run 7:57-58.

Most steeplers are too tired to run 7:57-7:58 but don't trip.

Jager tripped because his foot hit the barrier.

Centros obviously on the rise, the reason why he never runs crazy fast times in DL races is because hes not trying to peak for those, whereas the africans who drop crazy times like that are. I guarantee he will break 3:29 this season. Hes shown hes a smarter racer than the africans, he just has never had to use is peak fitness to produce a fast time this year.

As for Jager, the dude probably wont ever run sub 12:50, but It is very possible for him to break the world record in the steeple, his hurdleing mechanics are too good, with just the slightest increase in fitness he would be knocking on the door of low 7:50s.

Everything about your post is wrong.

DVCm8 wrote:

Centros obviously on the rise, the reason why he never runs crazy fast times in DL races is because hes not trying to peak for those, whereas the africans who drop crazy times like that are. I guarantee he will break 3:29 this season. Hes shown hes a smarter racer than the africans, he just has never had to use is peak fitness to produce a fast time this year.

As for Jager, the dude probably wont ever run sub 12:50, but It is very possible for him to break the world record in the steeple, his hurdleing mechanics are too good, with just the slightest increase in fitness he would be knocking on the door of low 7:50s.

No offense, but you aren't very smart. You "guarantee" that Centro will break 3:29 this season? How stupid are you? You think Jager can break the WR in the steeple? You have made two assertions which prove you have no clue.

1) like I said before, what is special about someone interviewing a guy who posts here himself? We don't need an intermediary.

2) Does he really think running 50m below sea level will make any difference? Is that any more "low altitude" than 50m ASL is "high altitude?"

Yeah ok, call me not smart, Ive just made 2 seriously reasonable assumptions, and supported my arguments, but whatever just call me out, give me an argument why centro wont do that? Because everything hes done so far last season and this one show that hes in way better shape then when he ran 3:30 in monaco. I also dont expect Jager to break the record, but I think he could.

OK. I should not have been insulting to you, but...how can you guarantee that Centro is going to continue to not just improve but make a HUGE improvement in the year he turns 28? Very few world class athletes do this, so the odds are greatly stacked against him.

Jager also will not make a HUGE jump at this stage of his career.

Bad Wigins wrote:

2) Does he really think running 50m below sea level will make any difference? Is that any more "low altitude" than 50m ASL is "high altitude?"

Good point. Isn't it adding just about 6 millibars? If so, you can gain much more pressure anywhere on the planet by waiting for a day with a perfectly standard anticyclone, or am I missing something?

Gwmbf wrote:

OK. I should not have been insulting to you, but...how can you guarantee that Centro is going to continue to not just improve but make a HUGE improvement in the year he turns 28? Very few world class athletes do this, so the odds are greatly stacked against him.

Jager also will not make a HUGE jump at this stage of his career.

Miracle Mo did just that, if I remember correctly.

I'm curious about the 50m below sea level. Would more oxygen in the air help people run faster? I don't get it, so someone please explain it.

I don't think 50 m above sea level is much slower than sea level? So I don't see how going 50 m below sea level would make much a difference.

Most important part of the interview:

Renato Canova said:

Kenenisa has a different engine. We can’t compare Kenenisa with anybody else in the past, present, and probably in the future.

Additionally, keeping in mind that Kenenisa does NOT believe that a sub-2-hour marathon is possible without contrived devices (such as jet-packs), you won't see a sub-2-hour marathon outside of a contrived setting.

Why anyone listens to Renato the fraud and his hordes of doped to the gills jokes is a mystery to anyone with common sense. He's been caught lying so many times that it's laughable.

Rosa Hermans Canato wrote:

Why anyone listens to Renato the fraud and his hordes of doped to the gills jokes is a mystery to anyone with common sense. He's been caught lying so many times that it's laughable.

R. Canova = Michele Ferrari. He should really shut up because his statements will be used against him in court someday. The Italians don't play with this.

You can wait all your life that I can go to the court for something connected with doping, because (in spite of accusations from people not knowing me and not knowing anything of what I do) I'm one of the collaborator AGAINST doping with IAAF.

What instead I'm interested to do, is the collaboration with scientists coming Kenya, controlling TOP ATHLETES FOLLOWING THEIR TRAINING (at the moment NO ONE of them has a vague idea about the training top runners do in altitude, and the same is for Letsrun posters basing everything on their little knowledge of advanced training methodology), and finally understanding the reason because EPO doping with them doesn't work.

I never spoke about other type of doping (steroids) not working, always about EPO only. And, in this case, I continue to maintain the same position : WITH THE MOST TALENTED TOP ATHLETES, BORN, LIVING AND TRAINING IN ALTITUDE, EPO CAN'T PRODUCE ANY ADVANTAGE.

It's funny that somebody shows, as proof that EPO works with Kenyan runners too, a list of athletes which doesn't include ANY of the best, with the only exception of Rita Jeptoo. This means that, according to the mentality of these people, ALL THE TOP ARE DOPED (since somebody worse than them was positive), and who was not OFFICIALLY positive is because is able to jump or to avoid controls.

Few people have the idea that THE TOP ARE NOT POSITIVE for the simple reason that DON'T USE ANY DOPING, and, if they are the best without using any doping, THE FACT SOMEBODY WORSE THAN THEM IS DOPED CAN'T BE CONSIDERED AS PROOF THAT DOPING (epo) WORKS.

This is a very simple, logic way of thinking. But people approaching problems already having the solution in their mind of course don't use a logic way of thinking.

Sounds like something a doper would say

Renato please ignore these idiots. We apologize on their behalf.