RealMan wrote:
I have to disagree with most of this. Yes, great performance and he should be happy. However, I don't think he will ever be a great runner; this may be as high as he ever places. The fact that this race led him to openly bawl on camera...yikes. That level of ecstasy over a slow 4th place is not the sign of a future champion. It was like it was a surprise to him that he placed that highly. That shows to me that he has no confidence in his abilities and didn't really believe that he deserved to be in the final in contention for the team. Someone like that is a one-hit wonder, so to speak. I would have vastly preferred a "I'm really pleased with my performance, but I have a long way to go to get where I want to be. I think if I'd done a few things differently, maybe I'd be going to worlds." I hope he proves me wrong (he's a nice guy) but I think we've seen the best he will ever do.
If you've talked to Matt, you'll find he's like a big puppy. A happy guy who's not going to hide his emotions because some dufus will denigrate him later.
That he didn't flat out quit running after being at Presybterian says a lot about him.
I'd dare say everyone who has ever met him loves him. I don't claim to know him that well, but I have his cell number and if I called him, I'm sure he'd ba happy to chat about running or anything else.
If you don't root for Matt to do well, you don't really love our sport.