stop already wrote:
What about Dave Scott's legendary passing of mark Allen in Ironman Hawaii by going around a TV truck? Bad sportsmanship or just f***ing clever thinking on his feet?
The two are not mutually exclusive
stop already wrote:
What about Dave Scott's legendary passing of mark Allen in Ironman Hawaii by going around a TV truck? Bad sportsmanship or just f***ing clever thinking on his feet?
The two are not mutually exclusive
Pot meet Kettle wrote:
AN,
Hasn't the whole discussion within this thread, as well as the Brojo's intial comment, been about imputing one's own values to Luke?
No. The front page headline was apparently a criticism of Watson's sense of sportsmanship -- quite the opposite of imputing one's own values to him. I started the thread because the quotation attributed to Watson and the headline both seemed puzzling; I was curious about the context. Various people have weighed in with their views about what they thought the comment and the headline meant, what they thought actually happened in this race, what they believe people should do in various race situations, and lots of other things.
Another classic example of the lack journalistic integrity for the Brojos. If you are guys are going to man a very influential news outlet for the sport. Please don't ruin it.
Boojos wrote:
Another classic example of the lack journalistic integrity for the Brojos. If you are guys are going to man a very influential news outlet for the sport. Please don't ruin it.
agreed.
Avocado's Number wrote:
Here's another article on the race.
http://www.royalgazette.com/article/20110117/SPORT05/701179983Another quotation from Watson:
“When I saw the two guys ahead of me take a wrong turn I figured that if it was going to be that kind of race then I'd hit back a little bit,” he said.
That quotation also sounds odd to me. I wonder if there's some important contextual information being left out of the reporting.
Some of the comments on this thread are a bit disturbing (although unsurprising) to me. I don't know enough about the circumstances of this particular race to have any strong views about what occurred, but I'm troubled by comments that seem to conflate a competitor's minimal obligations under the rules of a sport and an individual's sense of propriety and fair play. Just as I would hate to live in a society where people feel free to do whatever is not illegal, I would hate to be associated with a sport where participants feel free to do whatever is not against the rules of the game.
If I could redirect a competitor back onto the course of a marathon just by calling out to him, I sure as hell hope that I'd do so. I don't really feel that course navigation skills should be part of the competition in a road marathon. If the sport were orienteering, my thoughts about the matter would probably be quite different.
Again, I'm not commenting about the circumstances of this particular matter, beyond observing that the quotations seem rather odd to me.
Aren't you all high and mighty
I know Luke a little. (Hey, he's from Minnesota, like myself.We Minnesota runners all know each other!) Besides being a very talented runner from Stillwater HS,who is IMHO a "stand up guy" of great character. We don't know the circumstances with this race, but I would guess Luke would normally yell at his opponents if they made an errant turn, in the sense of fair play and sportsmanship. There could have been a language problem, the two Ethiopians may not have heard or understood him, and just ignored it. He may have said nothing, as it was a competetive money race, and the Ethiopians were throwing in surges. Maybe they were being jerks....who knows? Instinctively, I have yelled at competitors when they made a wrong turn, and I have had competitors yell at me when doing the same. I have put on a few dozen road races after my competitive days were over (sometimes in small towns), and always had a course marshall at critical points that could be confusing. Signs, arrows, etc. get knocked down, blown away, etc. The last thing I feel, a runner should have to do in a competitive road or XC race, is try to determine which way to run, especially later in the race when brain function slows down!
One of the worst cases of this happening occured to me over 40 (!) years ago, and it still rankles me: I was running for the U of M(innesota) in a triangular XC race against Michigan State and Eastern Michigan. We jogged the last mile of the 5 mile course in E. Lansing (MSU's home golf course), so we knew basically how the course went. The course was lined w/chalk, but it was a very sunny morning, and running into the sun made it difficult to see. I had built up a 100m lead (approx.) w/ 400-500m to go. An MSU athlete (w/ green Spartan letterjacket) pointed down the fairway, indicating a left turn to the finish chute. At this point I was very tired, and trusted that this guy knew what he was doing. He knew what he was doing alright: I was going down the fairway parallel to the correct fairway, essentially "cutting" 50m from the course. I looked over to the right and saw the Finish line. By that time, I was screwed as I looked back and could see the competitors and my teamm-mates approaching the Finish. I jogged over to the finish, totally pi$$ed. The second and third place MSU runners were gracious and fair-minded enough to tell officials what had happened. However, the MSU coach DQ'ed me and we lost the meet to MSU by a few points. The MSU runners seemed pretty upset w/ their coach and said I should have been the winner. It reinforces my notion that runners have a sense of fairness and sportsmanship, but some coaches, I guess, don't. Just my $.02