Farah is a WIMP- refuses to push a 26:30 pace, runs 26:50

800 dude wrote:

GOAT? wrote:

People just don't race like they used to. Just sit and kick races.

I don't get where this myth came from.

From all of the YouTube videos that support this. No one cares about slow sit and kick races from last century. No one cares about them in this one either.

wtfunny wrote:

I can't think of a single race where Geb ran like Farah did on Friday night, alternating taking the lead, and doing the work in a field of very evenly matched athlete.

Oh come on. What Farah did Friday was nothing outstanding, only unusual for him, and then he cried because no one set the pace for him boohoohoo.

Geb certainly did lead quite a bit in top competitions. I'm not sure of others, but he lead most of the race the 1st 10k where Bekele outkicked him at the end, and I'm not sure but didn't he lead the 10k where the last 5k was 13 flat.

J.R. wrote:

Oh come on. What Farah did Friday was nothing outstanding, only unusual for him, and then he cried because no one set the pace for him boohoohoo.

Geb certainly did lead quite a bit in top competitions. I'm not sure of others, but he lead most of the race the 1st 10k where Bekele outkicked him at the end, and I'm not sure but didn't he lead the 10k where the last 5k was 13 flat.

2003, right? Geb led only because he knew he couldn't outkick KB. He certainly wasn't trying to se set a PR at all. The race shows why Geb didn't typically lead against a field who could compete with him.

I didn't see Farah's postrace antics, but I agree it's pretty lame for athletes to complain about pacers. More often than not they don't follow the pacers anyway.

They went thru 5k in that race almost right on schedule. It highlights how well Sambu did last year.

I suggest you all take a break from discussing such cowardly runners like Farah and Gebrselassie. Instead spend fifteen minutes looking at the definite GOAT of distance running. Neither this Mo guy or that Haile guy coulda or woulda ever have done or will do what the definite GOAT distance runner does here.

Here, my friends, I present to you: Pure Beauty:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSSBtxvd5BI

I too would put Bekele and Geb above Mo but Mo is much higher on the all time list than the biased posters on here would have him

Bekele had his weak races as well like letting the pace slow to allow El G to out kick him. He didn't even really try to drop him

neutral runner expert wrote:

I suggest you all take a break from discussing such cowardly runners like Farah and Gebrselassie. Instead spend fifteen minutes looking at the definite GOAT of distance running. Neither this Mo guy or that Haile guy coulda or woulda ever have done or will do what the definite GOAT distance runner does here.

Here, my friends, I present to you: Pure Beauty:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSSBtxvd5BI

Hi neutral (?) genious!

Bekele's run which you present (!) here was fantastic, nobody doubts this I think. Last 2000m in exactly 5:00.0 minutes - incredible. And that Haile guy - as anybody knows - just was an ordinary jogger. Has needed 5:00.4 minutes for his last 2000m in his last 5k WR. A full 4 tenths of a second slower. Thanks to remind all that there is no comparison at all.

Maybe you just look at the Oslo 10000m from 1997. Here Gebrselassie really just jogged the last lap. To a WR.

Nobody - again: nobody - can say who of the two would have won in a pure time trail while in absolute top shape. I know that you don't know anything of Gebrselassie career, probably way too young. That's not your fault. But when someone don't know anything about a subject, than he/she definitely should be quit.

Just keep on with your whining and your idolatry of lesser runners and dopers. We all know that there can be just one GOAT. And that's the Great Bekele.

wtfunny: I really don't know anymore what you want to proof.

My statement ("Komen ran him out and broke the WR" has never happened) which you want to contradict was absolutely correct, which you agree to in the same sentence!

One of Gebrselassie's strongest points was his great finishing speed, which he used with good effort on many oportunitys. Again, I really don't know what you want to proof. What an unfair athlete Gebrselassie was? That he didn't lead when racing against the newly crowned 5000m world champion who has just ran one of the greatest championship performances in middle/long distance history a few days before? Yes, he didn't lead until the last 200m. And maybe you are right in not giving him a special award for this.

But maybe you can just notice that there were also other examples, when Gebrselassie actually ran away from great competition. At the Memorial Pepe Grecco road race (I think in 1998) he just ran away from Paul Tergat. Or in 1995 in Berlin over 5k he just ran away from his 5k WR predecessor Moses Kiptanui. Just two examples. I probably have 95% of all his races on video, I know little bit about what I'm talking. Trying to put Gebrselassie as a Farah-type runner while mentioning his two Zuerich races from 1996 and 1997 doesn't look very wise, really. Against the arguably greatest distance running talent we have seen so far at the absolute top of his game. The Komen from 1996 until early 1998 was such an unbelievable running machine - yet, Gebrselassie managed to beat him once and came in 2nd the other time, while not at his best. Not that bad.

But even his unbelievable running at the 2003 world champs when he led the biggest part of last 5000m and run 12:58, seems not enough to you. It was something like 5/6 years aftzer his best track years.

neutral runner expert wrote:

Just keep on with your whining and your idolatry of lesser runners and dopers.

Don't you realise how laughable you are? "lesser runners" - you probably mean Gebrselassie (?), I have not talked of someone else.

saidYou seem to take any comment as some kind of remark that Geb wasn't great. I have no idea why you feel that way. I didn't say anything like that.I have no idea what you're talking about "proof". I didn't ask you to "prove" anything. Settle down.Show me a race where Geb ran against his peers (such as an in shape Komen) and led, swapping the lead, like Mo did the other night, for a thrilling final lap? When he ran against KB, that's exactly what happened. And Geb was beaten by an old the day better athlete. That's precisely why, and the only reason why, Geb led.I'm comparing Geb's race history with one particular race Farah ran on Friday night. get just didn't typically race that way. That doesn't make him a bad runner, it doesn't make him "not enough for me". He just didn't.The point about Komen running him out was wrong, as you and I both agreed, as Komen didn't, that time, break the WR. Close enough that you're arguing for no reason. The point of that statement, and my comment that it was in response to, was this

Yes, Geb went after it when he wanted a WR. Otherwise, he sat on someone's shoulder, let them do the work, then blew by them for a the win. Unless they took off and left him behind, in which case he threw in the towel and walked to the finish. :)

Which is correct. And it even has a little :) afterward to show it's not meant to be taken too seriously. Don't get your panties in a wad just because someone said something about your little Geb.

Feel free to continue and wave your Geb Flag and jump up and down over nothing. It's just not that important.

Cheers

Augustine Choge

Wow, I can't believe people actually thought that I was being 100% serious. Do I get a troll rating for this?

On a more serious note, I posted because I am upset that Farah didn't keep running at 26:30 pace, which is a shame because Farah really needs some fast times if he wants to be considered for GOAT status. I thought that he should have just forgotten about Kamworror and Tanui and run a steady 26:30 pace. If he kept up a 26:30 pace, he almost certainly would have won. Had he run out of gas in doing so, he still would have run a fast time, and it wouldn't really matter if he didn't win (despite what the fans and media may say). However, I am glad that he at least tried to do some of the pacing, and it was interesting to see Farah run a non sit-and-kick race.

As the old saying goes "if you want something done right, then you have to do it yourself." Bekele seems to have taken this to heart in his 10k WR as he led from 5k onward and ran on his own from about 6k onward. Likewise, if Farah wants a fast 10k time, then he will have to force the pace himself. The pace makers did a decent job here for being called on such a short notice, so Farah can't really be upset with them. The only person to blame here is Farah, so he can only be upset with himself.

wtfunny wrote:

Which is correct. And it even has a little :) afterward to show it's not meant to be taken too seriously. Don't get your panties in a wad just because someone said something about your little Geb.

Feel free to continue and wave your Geb Flag and jump up and down over nothing. It's just not that important.

Cheers

My little Geb? What are you talking. After maybe 1993 I never was a fan of Gebrselassie.

Your 2nd statement here is typical. Someone tries to back up his points with good arguments, and the reply is: "jump up and down over nothing. It's just not that important." Yeah, it's not that important. Just so important that some people debate about it many years after it has happened. If it's not important to you, than I don't understand why you go into a discussion about it.

What about just going into all my arguments? What about just agreeing that I have given a correct statement to SOMEONE ELSE which you have called to be wrong? A fact. Yes, not important. But if someone claims you have done a wrong comment, than it's the most natural thing to defend yourself when in fact your statement was correct.

There ar not many examples that Gebrselassie has changed the lead with another runner to get a fast time, that's true. Mainly because when he ran for the time he just ran away from anybody else, often clipping early on the shoulder of his pacemaker to go faster or out of his way at all. He just ran his best when just going for the time without any help. Just running extremely fast laps like an clockwork. He even was famous for that.

said .. you're arguing semantics that don't contradict the point of what you were arguing against. The OP said

... Unlike Geb and Bekele, he is unwilling to push a fast pace. Looks like all this guy can do is sit and kick. Not an all time great if he can't even run a fast time.

and I said

Geb didn't push the pace when he had 2 other guys on his a$$. He pushed the race when, and only when, he knew no one else was competing with him for the win. Geb was even more a sit and kicker than Mo is. Incredible athletes, but Geb was hardly known for "pushing the pace" in a tight race.

You're trying to suggest this isn't true, but nothing you've said counters this.

When I said it's just not that important, I meant that's it just not that important. If you think Geb was known for leading and pushing the pace in a tight race like Mo did the other night, you haven't made much of a case for that. One example of an older Geb racing a younger, stronger, faster KB, where Geb knew that was his one and only chance of winning the race; and Geb lost.

Mo, on the other hand, could've run that race Friday night a lot slower, and won just as comfortably.

That's all.

Somali abroad wrote:

Relax, bro. You seem to think this is about Americans hating Brits. It's not. Nobody thinks of Mo Farah as British.

Get over it. He has a British father and left Somalia aged 3.

wtfunny wrote:

said .. you're arguing semantics that don't contradict the point of what you were arguing against. The OP said

... Unlike Geb and Bekele, he is unwilling to push a fast pace. Looks like all this guy can do is sit and kick. Not an all time great if he can't even run a fast time.

and I said

Geb didn't push the pace when he had 2 other guys on his a$$. He pushed the race when, and only when, he knew no one else was competing with him for the win. Geb was even more a sit and kicker than Mo is. Incredible athletes, but Geb was hardly known for "pushing the pace" in a tight race.

You're trying to suggest this isn't true, but nothing you've said counters this.

I have contradicted it now several times I think. It is true that there are not many examples when Gebrselassie has changed the lead with one or two competitors in a tight race.

You can devide Gebrselassie's races in two types:

1) He was very close to the leading runner, usually on position 2 or 3 and waited for his demolishing sprint (with 200m, 400m or 600m to go). In these races he was not interested in time but just the win.

2) He just went away from all his competitors early (with or without pacemakers), because he just was too strong for them. And this has not just happened against weak competition as I already have told you (for example 1995 over 5000m against former WR-holder Moses Kiptanui or 1998 Memorial Pepe Grecco 10km road against Paul Tergat, where Gebrselassie just went away from Tergat midrace).

And again: He was not just a "cicker" like Mo Farah, who in almost all his races does nothing for the lead. On many occasions Gebrslassie went to the lead early and from this point usually was never "seen" from his competitors. (yes, he has not done this against the probably greatest talent middle/long distance running has seen so far in the peak years of this guy.

There was no alternating the lead with others because those "others" were miles behind him.

Hopefully I have made it clear now.

Basically Farah can't win with you guys. If he sits and kicks like he normally does you have a go at him & in this race his tactics were very different, he won and you are still not happy.

elmore345 wrote:

Basically Farah can't win with you guys. If he sits and kicks like he normally does you have a go at him & in this race his tactics were very different, he won and you are still not happy.

We want gutsy front runners.

Mo wont and cant win with these guys , no matter what he does

Hes either :

doping

all he does is sit and kick

all of his competition are running Marathon now

He dodge races

cheats on his wife