Torrence Speaks Out Against Lagat After 5k Final

After reading the race review, I'm even more skeptical of the Lagat criticism. This was a 13:41 kickers race, not a 13:10 fitness race. They ran a slow race which played right to Lagat's strength as one of the fastest 1500m runners of all time. Yes, he's not capable of that anymore but that speed is certainly an incredible asset at the end of a slow and tactical 5K. If the younger guys had run this in a way that played to their fitness rather than the speed of the kickers, the outcome likely would have been very different.

Agreed. Jealous people, nothing else.

Jerk Store Check wrote:

Way to exaggerate his actual mile time. Does that make you feel good?

I watched the whole race and how it went down. Very easy to see how he did it and the pace built up.

Drugs? Until he's convicted and it's proven that he was on drugs it's just hearsay and nothing else. I believe that Dave thoroughly regrets his comments and not just the ones on Lagat. Very disappointed in his "shoot from the hip" comments.

srs man jkjkjkjkjkjkjkjkjkjk wrote:

Exactly. Not to mention Lagat split a friggin 4:00 min mile as well. WTF? At age 42...no freakin way. Doped to the gills baby. I hope he gets banned and all his times/accollades removed from teh books.

Tell him to get a box of tissue and have a good cry.

And I'm tired of people getting away with cheating, as are the vast majority of the people on these message boards, never mind the clean athletes getting robbed by cheaters. They must be really really tired of it, as evidenced by Torrence's rant.

Performances DON'T drop necessarily off quickly at that age. What are you basing that on?

He's smoking runners younger than him because those particular runners are nowhere near as good as he was in his prime. And because they didn't go hard from the gun. If anyone had the balls to set a low 13 pace from the beginning, Lagat wouldn't have been a factor.

I was watching wrote:

I watched the live stream last night. At first I thought he was joking about Lagat, but then as he kept going I realized he was being serious. I asked him in the stream chat and he acknowledged that it wasn't a joke, and moved on to how El G was a doper and Lagat was right there behind him. I asked him about Kiprop and he brought up the issues with his agent, Federico Rosa, getting arrested last week. He thinks that based off Kiprop's ability to do things like open a 1500 in 53 and still run a PR he thinks he is doped.

Like so many other LR posters, everyone faster than him is a doper.

Then everyone is stupid and the very existence of this thread proves it.

Hatsofftoykus wrote:

no one cares whether jenkins is doping or not

hes not good enough

It is amazing how similar this post is to the old "Lance Armastrong has to be clean because he is so good and works so hard, harder than anybidy else I have ever known"

Where is your evidence of cheating? On what actual evidence, experience, or knowledge do you postulate that Lagat has any evidence of cheating? I've been paid thousands based on my experience in this field and can state based on that experience that the circa 2003 Lagat "positive" was complete BS and the USADA was terribly embarrassed by the whole fiasco.

Have you got actual evidence, or just ignorant rants?

Guys in their early to mid 30's have been very competitive and successful in major competitions, guys over 40 just don't do that. Look at Bekele, he's 34 and has a 5k PR 20 seconds faster than Lagat and he couldn't compete trying to make his team in the 10k. It seems like Leo's already losing his kick at 31, and he won his Olympic silver EIGHT YEARS after Lagat did. Nobody else stays at that level for as long as Lagat has. Yeah he was way better in his prime than the other guys he was running against but that was a long time ago, pretty much all of his rivals from his prime are long retired.

rimjob wrote:

......

blah blah

It is amazing how similar this post is to the old "Lance Armastrong has to be clean because he is so good and works so hard, harder than anybidy else I have ever known"

Another take is - I like Lagat and worship his excretions so therefore he cannot be dirty.

I imagine this has already been said, but many miss the bigger picture here. Lagat's performance at his age was remarkable whether he was doping or not. 99.9% of the human population couldn't come close to what he has accomplished even with any PED on the table, and that includes LRC.

H8rsgonH8 wrote:

I imagine this has already been said, but many miss the bigger picture here. Lagat's performance at his age was remarkable whether he was doping or not. 99.9% of the human population couldn't come close to what he has accomplished even with any PED on the table, and that includes LRC.

No shit Sherlock. 99.9% of the human population could never make the US 5k final no matter how much they doped. No one is argueing Lagat is not insanely talented. All the guys at that level are, PED's don't take an average runner and make them world class. If Lagat is taking PED's we shouldn't celebrate the performace just because what he's doing at his age is remarkable regardless of whatever drug cocktail he's on.

Hey, you wanna fight?

Primo Numero Uno wrote:

H8rsgonH8 wrote:

I imagine this has already been said, but many miss the bigger picture here. Lagat's performance at his age was remarkable whether he was doping or not. 99.9% of the human population couldn't come close to what he has accomplished even with any PED on the table, and that includes LRC.

No shit Sherlock. 99.9% of the human population could never make the US 5k final no matter how much they doped. No one is argueing Lagat is not insanely talented. All the guys at that level are, PED's don't take an average runner and make them world class. If Lagat is taking PED's we shouldn't celebrate the performace just because what he's doing at his age is remarkable regardless of whatever drug cocktail he's on.

Somebody brought up Bekele...realize, if he were American, he'd win the 10k, 5k, and the marathon at the trials, and then place extremely high in the Olympics in either event. Ethiopia has better competition and a crap selection process. Lagat wouldn't have made the last two Olympic teams, most likely, if he ran for Kenya.

Geb could have made the Olympic marathon team for the United States this year, and he's just as old as Lagat. He would have a chance at making the 10k team, too, if he were still training.

Lagat is an all-time talent, at a comparable level to Geb, El-G, and Bekele. He took a more moderate approach to his training which is why he lacks the number of wins that Geb, Bekele, and El-G got at their peaks.

Being American and the moderate training approach led to a career which has lasted longer than the other three (Bekele may have more left, though).

We are talking the 5k and 10k so you bringing up the marathon is irrelevant. Bekele doesn't run on the track anymore because he isn't competitive anymore. He last raced on the track in 2014 and his best times were 13:08 and 27:12 in rabbited races. Two years later, he could NOT win the 5k and 10k at the trials. Get real and thank you for trying to provide analysis.

You don't think Bekele could make the U.S. team at 5k and 10k if he were healthy and trained for it? Get the hell out of here. Forget being healthy...I think, as is, Bekele could qualify in the 10 for the U.S. Since he can't do super fast workouts, the 5k would be more trouble, but that has nothing to do with age, that has to do with an achilles issue. Also, if Bekele were American, he probably wouldn't have the injury issues because he wouldn't have to train as intensely just to ensure he can qualify for teams.

Hell, I think Geb qualifies for the U.S. 10k team and the guy has been retired for like two years. Give him a few months to ramp up (because I'm sure he still runs), he'd be good to go for at least a 27:30.

lrclowend wrote:

Looks like we got a couple of butthurt Ben True fanboys

Perfect. Shoulda been: "END. OF. THREAD."

you're clueless wrote:

You don't think Bekele could make the U.S. team at 5k and 10k if he were healthy and trained for it? Get the hell out of here. Forget being healthy...I think, as is, Bekele could qualify in the 10 for the U.S. Since he can't do super fast workouts, the 5k would be more trouble, but that has nothing to do with age, that has to do with an achilles issue. Also, if Bekele were American, he probably wouldn't have the injury issues because he wouldn't have to train as intensely just to ensure he can qualify for teams.

Hell, I think Geb qualifies for the U.S. 10k team and the guy has been retired for like two years. Give him a few months to ramp up (because I'm sure he still runs), he'd be good to go for at least a 27:30.

The prior poster said WIN the trials in the 5k and 10k and, yes, there is no way he would have beaten Rupp in the 10k or a doped up Lagat dropping a 52 last 400 in the 5k. Do you think Bekele would have dropped a 51???