Cooper MF Lutkenhaus - US 9th grader (age 15) runs 1:47.58!!!

Americans, please dont burn this one out. Absolutely awesome.

A lot can happen between here and 1:46, let's not get ahead of ourselves, and so on

not impausible. injuries happen, illness happens, life happens. i venture a lot of this board ran their best 800 time by 19. i did.

The way some of these people talk I am sure most of them arent even 19 yet.

No. It is a myth that the best way to run a fast 800 is with a positive 2-second split. Also other 400-800 guys like borzakovski would run very even pace races. It doesn't mean they were really secret Milers in disguise

Freshmen are age 14, nearly 15 ... he'll be 18, nearly 19 as a "senior". He was held back a year. Age group record, yes. Class record no.

There has to be some way to stop parents from abusing their kids and holding them back in the hope they get an athletic advantage. My suggestion is to force the athlete to compete as a member of the appropriate class group, in his case as a Sophomore. As 18-year-old 12th grader he cannot compete for his school. He could run in adult events without penalty, but no longer setting HS records.

Yeah, having all runners in the same uniform is horrible for spectators. I hate when watching a diamond league and everyone has the same stupid blue and green Nike uniforms.

I can't image he has a ridiculous anti-training regime like Cade Flatt. But like Flatt, he will be a HS senior when he should be a College Freshmen. If Jim Ryun was held back a year, the HS 800 record would be 1:44.3 – a world record at the time.

15 is a totally normal age to be at the end of one's freshman year. Just stop.

He will turn 16 as a sophomore, 17 as a junior, 18 as a senior. Just like 95% of American high schoolers.

He will 18 in the summer BEFORE the school starts. Just like 1-2% of American high schoolers.

Suspicious

I'll give the announcers a little more of a pass here since these meets to put everyone in the same exact uniform. Makes it impossible to pick someone out

Look at his progression. There were likely no major injuries happening unless at the end of his career. His progression looks very much like someone who was years older than his listed age. He is supposed to have been born November 20, 1994. That means that he rose with a 1:50.79 at age 15, then dropped six seconds the next year to a 1:44.98 at age 16 and 1:42.53 in 2012 at age 17 when he peaked. In the years to come, he ran 1:44, 1:43, 1:45, 1:44, very even, much like you might expect in the mid 20s, and then he fell off the cliff, 1:46 in June 2017 his best time that year (the previous two years, his best times were in April and June)), and then 1:49.54 in May of 2018. The baby was born in 2018 and only because he was no longer a world-level runner would he have potentially taken time off to take care of the family, something that really wouldn't have been necessary anyway because his and his wife's earnings especially by that point would have allowed them to easily pay for child care, housekeepers, and all that. But whether he did that isn't relevant. He was done supposedly at age 23 after 9 years of performances at the world or regional stage. Come on. That is not credible. Surely he was 2-3 years older at least, already 18 or 19, maybe even 20, when he ran 1:44.98, he peaked at 19-21 in London, held it together another four years and then declined. We know two things about Kenyan athletics at this point: 1) doping is rife and was essentially unpoliced when he rose in 2012 (over 400 doping bans since around 2015); 2) age cheating is rife because most births in the 1990s and 2000s were not in hospitals and so birth certificates are highly unreliable (many articles and scandals can be found). And, in the end, Kitum isn't relevant to this record anyway, because he didn't run under 1:50 until he was listed at 16 and we're talking about the age 15 record.

800 Metres
2010 1:50.79 Nairobi (KEN) 16 JUN 2010
2011 1:44.98 Lille (FRA) 09 JUL 2011
2012 1:42.53 Olympic Stadium, London (GBR) 09 AUG 2012
2013 1:44.45 Stade Louis II, Monaco (MON) 19 JUL 2013
2014 1:43.65 Heusden-Zolder (BEL) 19 JUL 2014
2015 1:45.41 Stadio Olimpico, Roma (ITA) 04 JUN 2015
2016 1:44.51 Nairobi (KEN) 29 APR 2016
2017 1:46.09 FBK Stadium, Hengelo (NED) 11 JUN 2017
2018 1:49.54 Yanmar Stadium Nagai, Osaka (JPN) 20 MAY 2018

"In 2003, Kenya's Under-17 national (football) team were dissolved by the Kenyan Government after some players revealed themselves to be over 18 years of age."

"Kenya have been thrown out of the under-20 World Cup qualifying competition for the 2017 finals in South Korea for fielding five over age players, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) said on Wednesday."

"Age cheating is notorious in African football but offending football associations are rarely caught or punished."

eurosport.com

Kenya caught age cheating in under-20 World Cup qualifiers - Eurosport

Eurosport_UK

Kenya have been thrown out of the under-20 World Cup qualifying competition for the 2017 finals in South Korea for fielding five over age players, the

Open link

"Kenya and other East African countries have long been suspected of age-cheating at youth and junior championships. However, it has never been fully investigated or proven. Athletics Kenya (AK) has now quasi-half admitted that age-cheating exists. They have indirectly pointed fingers at the athletes and coaches, not the administration or organisers of teams and meets.
With the national youth pre-trials and trials on their schedule, AK has warned that age-cheating will not be tolerated.
AK announced that athletes and coaches that there will be “severe consequences” if they age-cheat. This warning comes before the national pre-trials for the 2021 World Under-20 Championships at the Nyayo National Stadium on Friday, Nov 20."

athleticsillustrated.com

Athletics Kenya ostensibly admits age-cheating exists in athletics

Athleticsillustrated

Athletics Kenya youth director Barnaba Korir ostensibly admits age-cheating exists in the youth and junior ranks of athletics

Open link

Which means he will be 18 at graduation still. At the old end of the range to be sure but still very much in it.

Why do we have to go over this a million times? Age cut-off for kindergarten and following is typically September 1, right about the beginning of the school year. Typical Americans go to kindergarten when they are five years old. So, they are born from, say, September 1, 2008 to August 30, 2009. That means that all high school freshmen now who were not held back or skipped a grade would be 15 years old or about to turn 15 this summer. About one-third of them will turn sixteen this year, from September through December. Two-thirds will turn sixteen next year, from January through August. Then there are about 10% of kids, mostly boys, who were held back and entered kindergarten at age six, in some cases because boys tend to be ready for kindergarten later than girls (and grades and behavior charts show this) and in others for athletic purposes later on. If he turns 16 prior to September 1, he is the age of a sophomore, though not by much. If he was born in August and is therefore a few weeks older than the oldest typical kid in his class, then I can understand why they would have done that, because my son is among the youngest in his class and as a result has a disadvantage in physical and mental development relative to kids as much as 11 months older than him with whom he is competing at school and in sports (and doing very well but in sports there is a definite disadvantage).

(For those considering skipping kids, as we did our daughter, I would advise against it because even if the kid is academically more than ready to be a year, two years, three years or more ahead, the social and emotional, as well as the physical, disadvantages make it not worth it by high school.)

Chill out, he's a normal age for a freshman. I shouldn't have to spell it out like this, but in American public high schools, students start 9th grade age 14 and turn 15. OR a few have late summer birthdays and turn 15 just before the school year starts, which is not a big deal. Grade 10= 15 turning 16. Grade 11= 16 turning 17. Grade 12= 17 turning 18. He will be 18 when he graduates high school, just like over 90% of other high schoolers.

I think the Africans are excluded due to the age cheating problem.

When is his birthday? There are tons of kids in today's world that will turn 16 as a soph right after 9/1...tons every year. Hey I turned 17 in December of my senior year, in todays world had I been held back I would not have even been near the oldest senior around. If his birthday is in June or JUly? he is about 2-3 months old. This is not unusual today, but it is clearly an advantage and is a pretty old freshman. On the other hand 1.47.x is fast at any age, he is still what age he is lol.

If I hadnt been told so I never would have guessed he was 15! Didnt have a clue at first, was justwatching the race without sound or caps, and was very impressed. Then learned he was a freshman! When did freshmen start looking like actual men?! Stud!