Leo Manzano kind of shocked the track world winning the NCAA 1500 as a freshman.
Leo Manzano kind of shocked the track world winning the NCAA 1500 as a freshman.
Rosie Ruiz came out of nowhere to win the Boston Marathon.
Bruce Egeland
And it really isn't close.
Makloufi, Ramzi
Dr. Delano Meriwether
Mark Conover
Boyd wrote:
Donald Thomas
This.
I was at that meet. There were a lot of memorable races. I was hyped to see King Carl, and then he gets beat by some kid nobody ever heard of. Michael Johnson was in the stands at least one day. In the steeple, some guy ran into a barrier, a bunch of guys ran into him, he peels himself over, comes back and ends up either first or second (looking back at the results, it may have been Jim Svenoy). And in the final event, Baylor and LSU squared off in the 4X400, LSU gets passed in the final straight by Baylor and shoves the Baylor runner after the finish, and both relay teams come out and start throwing haymakers at each other.
All that being said, I think the greatest unknown to win a major championship was either Billy Mills or Josia Thugwane.
I think Jenny Barringer (Simpson) deserves a mention. She had her moments, but her 7-second obliteration of the NCAA 1500 record in a sub-4 and nearly winning it at the line at the Prefontaine Classic in 2009, was shocking. There was a bunch of pros in bright yellow Nike singlets and then this lone Colorado girl.
Haven't read through the thread, because your posts tend to be tedious, so someone may have already mentioned him but I'll nominate Billy Mills.
Billy Mills ran on an Olympic team so how was he.....out of nowhere?
Look people....
Carl Lewis and Ray Stewart two of the top sprinters in the world were beaten by a guy nobody had ever heard of before. Ya see.......he came out of nowhere.
I will bite wrote:
I think Jenny Barringer (Simpson) deserves a mention. She had her moments, but her 7-second obliteration of the NCAA 1500 record in a sub-4 and nearly winning it at the line at the Prefontaine Classic in 2009, was shocking. There was a bunch of pros in bright yellow Nike singlets and then this lone Colorado girl.
This was not "out of nowhere" by the OP's definition. It was definitely a surprise, but Jenny was pretty well established as a good NCAA runner.
Katir.
Houston McTear
Frank Shuffler 2 wrote:
Katir.
Talk me into it.
Not Fast Anymore wrote:
Houston McTear
I do think we could go with his 9.0 as the most ......out of nowhere....time. There was a hint of it in the heats where he ran a 9.2 but before that meet nobody saw this coming and just a junior.
Did see him in person once while he was at Cerritos JC saw him come from way back on a 4x2 anchor, as he lookEd all around ho humming it....the crowd WOOOOOO~~~~~
Or, how about...
Abebe Bikila
He had only won a couple of domestic races while in the army.
Mak Daddy when he won the 15 in the 2012 Olympics. But im sure the Olympics are notorious for that stuff--i'm talking about dopers coming out of nowhere.
Simeon Birnbaum from Rapid City SD. Was literally a nobody as a HS sophomore one year ago, and now is the only American HS junior since *JIM RYUN* to break four minutes for the mile. And Ryun at least had a logical progression. Birnbaum ran season bests of 4:30 for 1600m and 9:42 for 3200m last year. WTF. Out of nowhere.
You don’t get into the pro heat of the 100m at Texas Relays “out of nowhere,” goofball. He had a legit mark and somebody had heard of him, notably the meet director.
You said trackster, but since roadies are showing up here -
Bill Rodgers