The world championships have been held in Japan in the pass:
The world championships have been held in Japan in the pass:
robert678 wrote:
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot wrote:
Salazar isn't involved in coaching Osako.
Yep. He's coached by Pete Julian. I know Salazar coaches Hassan, Kajelcha, and Rupp. Who else does he coach? I know all the others are coached by Julian.
Hasay
hardset nipples wrote:
I suspect there are marathoners from America as well as Japan who will find a silver lining in not racing Tokyo 2020, for this reason among others.
If the IOC is so shameless about its preference for $$$$bucks over performance (not to mention safety), it does make more sense for an athlete to go for the $$$$ in a fast money race rather than cheapened glory in the Olys.
BergLaufer wrote:
The world championships have been held in Japan in the pass:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=T9jrIyt1miU
Yeah, I know. I was there (saw the long jump and 100 WRs). But look at that winning time (2:14:56). The winner, Taniguchi, was a 2:07 guy. So was Salah, who placed second.
And those WCs were held a month later than next year's Olys will be held, and summers are MUCH hotter now than they were nearly 30 years ago.
Taro wrote:
Osako's mechanics looked terrible. Way too much vertical movement and shoulder-rolling. Nakamura and Hattori both looked a LOT more stable and efficient than Osako, especially in the last kilo, when Osako completely fell apart form-wise.
You have to wonder whether Salazar and the NOP really know what they're doing when it comes to mechanics.
Osaka's form reminded me of Rupp, I recalled this when the hit the hills at the end.
Taro wrote:
And if you think it was hot for today's race, consider what it will be like in Tokyo from July 27 to Aug. 9 next year.
It has cooled a good 10 degrees F here in Tokyo just in the last few days. And the humidity has plummeted. But even then, a bunch of guys who have run between 2:05 and 2:08 could muster only 2:11 even with Oly berths at stake.
So Jacques Rogge and NBC have guaranteed yet another pedestrian, ugly, boring Olympic marathon of attrition next year.
It could well be slower than Abebe Bikila's winning time in Tokyo in October 1964.
Why even watch?
Thanks, Jacques. Thanks, NBC.
Why even watch? Well, because the field should include a number of the best marathoners in the world, trying to win the most pretigious marathon on the planet, under conditions that will be far more testing than the tricked-up laboratory conditions of time trials designed to enhance their continuing appeal to run-of-the-mill fans and participants by producing fast times with pacemakers, substantial elimination of race tactics, table-top flat courses, and locations and times likely to approach optimal weather conditions for fast running.
Avocado's Number wrote:
Why even watch? Well, because the field should include a number of the best marathoners in the world, trying to win the most pretigious marathon on the planet, under conditions that will be far more testing than the tricked-up laboratory conditions of time trials designed to enhance their continuing appeal to run-of-the-mill fans and participants by producing fast times with pacemakers, substantial elimination of race tactics, table-top flat courses, and locations and times likely to approach optimal weather conditions for fast running.
Well if watching fast people slog through unnecessarily oppressive conditions is what floats your boat, by all means . . .
But if that's the case, why not make it really hard and make them run it in sand. Or up Mt. Fuji. That would be thrilling, wouldn't it.
I think it's safe to say that most fans, even the not so "run-of-the-mill" ones (whatever the hell that means) like me, would rather watch fast people run fast.
Plus one wrote:
robert678 wrote:
Yep. He's coached by Pete Julian. I know Salazar coaches Hassan, Kajelcha, and Rupp. Who else does he coach? I know all the others are coached by Julian.
Hasay
Is Murphy with Salazar or also mainly with Julian like Engels and Brazier, they are certainly all doing workouts together according to instagram pictures? Not sure that if Julian is their main coach means that AlSal is not involved at all.
Absolute warriors.
Folks, this is what a CLEAN marathon looks like.
No wall of pacers, no clown shoes, no Italian coaches and doctors, no "teenage" elites.
You love to see it.
Races like this are always so much more entertaining than the frauds that are now the big city and WC races.
Did someone say they'd like to see a video of the race.? Here's what seems to be the full women's race, anyway:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=mgc+%E3%83%9E%E3%83%A9%E3%82%BD%E3%83%B3
Nice to see Mizuki Noguchi, the Athens marathon gold medallist, get some air time as a commentator.
big dave22 wrote:
Absolute warriors.
Folks, this is what a CLEAN marathon looks like.
No wall of pacers, no clown shoes, no Italian coaches and doctors, no "teenage" elites.
You love to see it.
Races like this are always so much more entertaining than the frauds that are now the big city and WC races.
Clown shoes???? You talking about those Nike 4% thingies? Weren't a lot of the athletes in this race were wearing those?
One New Balance, two Adidas, remainder Clown shoes (men's race).
Shoe watcher wrote:
One New Balance, two Adidas, remainder Clown shoes (men's race).
Early on, about starting time, someone pointed out all the ASICS jerseys and the lack of Nike. I immediately replied, yeah, but what's on their feet, being under the impression that although a lot of folks associate Japan with Mizuno and especially ASICS, they actually wear Nike. Not necessarily the logos on the uniform, but what is literally on their feet. Kawauchi is a very notable exception but as this observer who had access to view the race pointed out, the field was nearly all Nike-shod.
And, to restate what has been pointed out ad infinitum, Kawauchi wasn't in the race.
An absolutely epic marathon to watch. That last 5k of the men looked like those guys were in a Rocky movie. All out fighting. The men’s race was incredible. Fans 5-10 deep. TV announcing superb. This. This is how it’s done. Wow.
Wow just wow wrote:
This is how it’s done. Wow.
That's because it's Japan, where running is a revered sport and hasn't been decimated by big-money sports.
A few days before the race, TBS had a 2-hour, prime-time special on how the Japanese federation settled on the Oly team selection system they adopted.
It included a mini-drama that featured a showdown between Toshihiko Seko, the former marathon great and current head of Japan's marathon-renewal project, and the coach of the Otsuka Pharmaceutical team (Kawano, I think is his name) over whether to adopt a pure U.S.-type , one-off process or something more traditional. They settled on the current system as compromise, in part to keep the sponsors who have supported the major marathons here for decades (newspaper companies, etc.) happy. They felt a one-off approach would be a "betrayal" of those sponsors because, presumably, it would undermine the importance of the big domestic marathons they've long sponsored. It was a fascinating, behind-the-scenes look at what factored into the decision.
Anyway, it's hard to imagine a 2-hour, prime-time special on such an arcane, running-related subject in the U.S. (or anywhere, else for that matter). It's one of the things that makes me very grateful to live here (along with the fact that the Hakone Ekiden runs practically in front of my house).
Another Observer wrote:
I immediately replied, yeah, but what's on their feet, being under the impression that although a lot of folks associate Japan with Mizuno and especially ASICS, they actually wear Nike. Not necessarily the logos on the uniform, but what is literally on their feet. Kawauchi is a very notable exception but as this observer who had access to view the race pointed out, the field was nearly all Nike-shod.
And Hattori, Shitara, and several others warmed up in the standard-issue, blue-green Nike training T-shirts you see a lot now. So the corporate teams they run for (Fujitsu, Toyota, and Honda for Nakamura, Hattori, and Shitara, respectively) must at least get gear from Nike (and maybe some money to use their gear).
Taro wrote:
It included a mini-drama that featured a showdown between Toshihiko Seko, the former marathon great and current head of Japan's marathon-renewal project. . .
Interestingly, Seko had nothing but praise for Shitara's "courage" after the race.
I got the distinct impression he's pulling for Shitara to break the NR later and grab a spot on the team (which would bump Osako, of course).