It's not irrelevent if he is older than 17, because it would mean that he cheated a genuine junior out of a medal, final place, semi final place at the World Junior Championships. And he gained valuable experience there. Also, the reason why Rojo created this thread was because he is '17', and if that's true, his performance was astounding. If he's 22 or whatever, then the really impressive performances were from Max Burgin and the Algerian.
Not to mention that if he is lying about his age and is really 22 or 25, and has just burst onto the scene running these times, then he's almost certainly juiced to the gills.
Look at the pictures from last year, he looks pretty young certainly not mid-20s. I have no idea if he's 17 years 10 months, but you've just taken 5 leaps off a guy who looks like a little old (perhaps 18-21 now). Because his age may be off he's definitely doping? He is deliberately lying with his age? He's just burst in when in reality in 2021 he ran domestically starting in March.
It is extremely unlikely he's 25. Most 800m runners are holding onto their prime at age 24-25 - I think you know this.
Here is the beginning of an article about him from last year, which indicates he was picked out before high school, which I don't think where many 19-20 year old Kenyans are going to be found:
"Emmanuel Wanyonyi, a former herdsman, who dropped out of school in class three but resumed with his studies seven years later, has vowed to deliver a medal, at the ongoing World Athletics under 20 Championship in Kasarani. Wanyonyi, who is in Form One, was plucked from the grassing field by a Good Samaritan, who offered to pay for his education only to be enrolled in athletics programme by his teachers. And four years later, Wanyonyi is among medal prospects at the junior event and wants to return the favour by winning at least a medal for the country, in his first appearance on the global stage."
Early 20s probably. The classic tell, aside from looking at him, is that he dropped out of school to become a herdsman and re-appeared seven years later. That alone would put him in Form two anyway at the time of the article. Four years later he would be in form six, which is to say, a sophomore in college. That would be 19 at least. I bet he's 20-22. Understand, if you don't know it, that not only are many high schoolers in East Africa older than 18--often because they were unable to pass the exams to reach high school for years--but birth records today--and certainly 18+ years ago--are only maintained for half at most, and most of them are probably urban, which is not usually the distance runners. There are also multiple, major monetary incentives to claim younger ages, whether by agents or the athletes, because that brings international opportunities, like World Juniors, and the idea that they have much more potential and so are a good risk. And, of course, there is a history of a great deal of age cheating in Kenya and Ethiopia. That is well documented.
Look at the pictures from last year, he looks pretty young certainly not mid-20s. I have no idea if he's 17 years 10 months, but you've just taken 5 leaps off a guy who looks like a little old (perhaps 18-21 now). Because his age may be off he's definitely doping? He is deliberately lying with his age? He's just burst in when in reality in 2021 he ran domestically starting in March.
It is extremely unlikely he's 25. Most 800m runners are holding onto their prime at age 24-25 - I think you know this.
Here is the beginning of an article about him from last year, which indicates he was picked out before high school, which I don't think where many 19-20 year old Kenyans are going to be found:
"Emmanuel Wanyonyi, a former herdsman, who dropped out of school in class three but resumed with his studies seven years later, has vowed to deliver a medal, at the ongoing World Athletics under 20 Championship in Kasarani. Wanyonyi, who is in Form One, was plucked from the grassing field by a Good Samaritan, who offered to pay for his education only to be enrolled in athletics programme by his teachers. And four years later, Wanyonyi is among medal prospects at the junior event and wants to return the favour by winning at least a medal for the country, in his first appearance on the global stage."
Early 20s probably. The classic tell, aside from looking at him, is that he dropped out of school to become a herdsman and re-appeared seven years later. That alone would put him in Form two anyway at the time of the article. Four years later he would be in form six, which is to say, a sophomore in college. That would be 19 at least. I bet he's 20-22. Understand, if you don't know it, that not only are many high schoolers in East Africa older than 18--often because they were unable to pass the exams to reach high school for years--but birth records today--and certainly 18+ years ago--are only maintained for half at most, and most of them are probably urban, which is not usually the distance runners. There are also multiple, major monetary incentives to claim younger ages, whether by agents or the athletes, because that brings international opportunities, like World Juniors, and the idea that they have much more potential and so are a good risk. And, of course, there is a history of a great deal of age cheating in Kenya and Ethiopia. That is well documented.
The phrase "..dropped out of school in class three but resumed with his studies seven years later," seems to mean "now (in the year of the WJC) he is studying again, 7 years after he dropped out", NOT "it's 7 years since he started studying again".
This means if he was 8 - 10 in grade 3 when he dropped out, he was 15-17 in 2021 and he had started studying again 4 years ago when he also started in sports, meaning he missed three years of schooling not 7.
So the article's timeline fits his purported age. The birth record accuracy is another matter.
We probably won’t know for sure, but unless he opts to compete at World Juniors again it feels like less of a big deal. The podium from last years was loaded with the Algerian who ran runner-up acquitting himself fairly well.
The most egregious age one I can remember is Isaiah Koech. He was definitely at least 4 years older then his listed age. Some of the most precocious guys (Jakob, Barega, Kiplimo, Bekele) really just are that good it seems.
The first run that Wanyonyi did after he decided to become a runner was about fifteen laps on a nearby school track, which he didn't count. His legs and body would hurt him so much the following day, but he never lost hope. "I would just go out running whenever I had the time, not knowing what distance I was covering nor the duration I would spend in a single run. Sometimes, I would use the track on the primary school nearby and one time some teachers saw me training hard and asked me to go back to school so that I would represent them at the track and field games." Wanyonyi explained how he started running. At school, Wanyonyi finally got to represent his primary school in track events ranging from 5,000m down to 400m. But, interestingly, he won all the race distances in school. He proceeded to the regional level where he ran in the 1500m, 3,000m steeplechase, and the 4x400m relays and made it to the nationals where he got to meet the principal of Kosirai High School who invited him to report at the school for his secondary education in 2020.
So he starts running at a local primary school track after 7 years working on a farm, and the schoolteachers spot him and want him to represent their school (and bring money in) and ask him to say he's 16 so he can enroll.
The guy might even believe he's 17, when he's clearly at least 22-25. Imagine the confidence that gives you, first of all absolutely crushing your 16 year old classmates at every distance from 400m to 5000m, then going on to demolish teenagers at the World Juniors.
So it's not relevant if we're talking about Cade Flatt or Will Sumner being a year older than the rest of the HS class of 22' but it is important when a Kenyan "17 y.o." is crushing some of the best in the world in an open race??
Got it, thanks
Bunch of moran LRC racists, nothing else. There's an 18 yo rugby league player here who debuted at 17 with a huge league contract, there's a bunch of other youngsters, around 18. 19 who have already moved to state rep level. No one questions their age here, nor would you guys.
They are so bloody stupid that they said the same of Kipchoge when he started, and now that he is still performing at 38 or whatever....which apparently would make him 50 to the morans....they now say he is not as old as what he says he is.
You can't argue with these guys because they have too much experience at being stupid
No, it's not racist to be upset at the state of athletics when a 25 year old Kenyan can stroll into the World Junior Championships and destroy everyone as a '17 year old', then take that confidence and win in the Diamond League, with Rojo gushing about him when the real inspirational story is 20 year old Max Burgin coming back from a year out and running 1:44.5.
Kipchoge is very likely in his 40's. We don't know how a 40+ year old world class athlete will perform beyond what would be expected, after consuming EPO for likely 20 years. Well we do know, because he has shown us, along with Bekele. But it's irrelevant anyway, because there has been proven wide scale age cheating in Kenya, unsurprisingly given the financial incentives and the lack of birth record keeping. In this case (Wyamyoni) it's beyond obvious.
Who has the best finishing kick ever for middle or long distance races? Snell? Ryun? Coe? Ovett? Yifter? Cova? Skah? Morceli? Gebrselassie? Borzakovskiy? Bekele? Farah? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWoNJYweeoY
Kipchoge is very likely in his 40's. We don't know how a 40+ year old world class athlete will perform beyond what would be expected, after consuming EPO for likely 20 years. Well we do know, because he has shown us, along with Bekele. But it's irrelevant anyway, because there has been proven wide scale age cheating in Kenya, unsurprisingly given the financial incentives and the lack of birth record keeping. In this case (Wyamyoni) it's beyond obvious.
In the meantime, you are nothing but a fuming troll on an online forum while these kids are doing great things in running.
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I find it really hard to believe that a kid of 16/17 run 1.44 in his first year of the 800m.
Aouita was suffering like the hell in the 80s to get around 13:00 in the 5000m (and god know how he was training), now you have a kid of 16/17 that get 13:00 in his first year.
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