Mo Farah set to get spanked by Kenenisa Bekele at Big Half

Esterhazy wrote:

Either way Mo loses. If he cross the line first it we be attributed to his alleged and as yet unproven doping. If he crosses the line anything other than first he will just be called a chump, as is de rigueur here. I have no special interest in defending Mo, but the hatred of him on this website has crossed into pathos.

^ Absolutely.

LDoc wrote:

Esterhazy wrote:

Either way Mo loses. If he cross the line first it we be attributed to his alleged and as yet unproven doping. If he crosses the line anything other than first he will just be called a chump, as is de rigueur here. I have no special interest in defending Mo, but the hatred of him on this website has crossed into pathos.

^ Absolutely.

Mo needs to take a page out of Makhloufi's playbook. He is also an obvious championship-specific doper, but has a certain jollyness and elan' de guerre that Mo doesn't, and as a result has a strong fan base due to his personality. And of course no Tania.

Esterhazy wrote:

Either way Mo loses. If he cross the line first

he will do a cheesy dance, make a stupid heart gesture with his arms and then prostrate himself in devout prayer.

How can anyone be a fan of that?

Nothing more enjoying than seeing Farah lose. When he loses you can also see he’s angry, which makes it even better. This is the main reason I’m happy about his 10k at Tokyo. Seeing him losing there will be such joy!

not legit I quit wrote:

douglas burke wrote:

Hopefully with Wanders running RAK in Late February and Farah running this race against K. Bekele Europe can get 1 or even 2 Men under 59 Minutes in the Half Marathon.

The Farah race will be legal? Isn't the course assisted?

Remember, Farah's 59:07 does not count for records or official toplists.

yes, its an assisted course, the times won't make it in any serious record list.

Bekele will win for sure. For the ones stating Mo has a dangerous kick: Bekele's is better. Yes, it's a long time since we saw it, but it's still there - mark my words.

theRanMan wrote:

Bekele will win for sure. For the ones stating Mo has a dangerous kick: Bekele's is better. Yes, it's a long time since we saw it, but it's still there - mark my words.

if it was still there, he wouldn't have left the track 7 or 8 years ago. Farah retired him with his kick in 2012.

high school xc coach wrote:

theRanMan wrote:

Bekele will win for sure. For the ones stating Mo has a dangerous kick: Bekele's is better. Yes, it's a long time since we saw it, but it's still there - mark my words.

Farah retired him with his kick in 2012.

You mean Mo Farah slithered into the power vacuum that was created by Bekele’s departure from the track due to injury? The 26:46 guy “retired” the 26:17 guy?

Do you remember watching Bekele break Farah in 2013 at GNR? (A year where Farah ran 3:28...) Or when Bekele broke Wilson Kipsang very late in 2016 at Berlin to run 2:03:03?

the hyena you’ll see wrote:

high school xc coach wrote:

Farah retired him with his kick in 2012.

You mean Mo Farah slithered into the power vacuum that was created by Bekele’s departure from the track due to injury? The 26:46 guy “retired” the 26:17 guy?

Do you remember watching Bekele break Farah in 2013 at GNR? (A year where Farah ran 3:28...) Or when Bekele broke Wilson Kipsang very late in 2016 at Berlin to run 2:03:03?

yes. he retired him in an actual race when he destroyed him in the final lap. He didn't retire a 26:17 guy. he retired a guy who couldn't keep up with a 53 second kick in a 27:30 race. It was off to the roads for bekele after that.

ya. he broke him in a half marathon when one of them was focused on 1500 to 10k, and the other was focused on becoming a marathoner.

The 10000m has much more to do with the half than the marathon.

high school xc coach wrote:

theRanMan wrote:

Bekele will win for sure. For the ones stating Mo has a dangerous kick: Bekele's is better. Yes, it's a long time since we saw it, but it's still there - mark my words.

if it was still there, he wouldn't have left the track 7 or 8 years ago. Farah retired him with his kick in 2012.

you might be right as i heard it was hard for him to train for speed with the calf/achilles injuries he had back then...

But, in 2013 he was still going for the worlds 10,000m and won a few races (i.e., Pre) but since Ethiopian federation only goes off times, there was a smaller race where a few others (that he beat at Pre-classic) went faster than his fastest of the year and he wasn't chosen...that's why he did the great north run instead since he was not chosen for Worlds… Interestingly he then tried to get into world by time trialing a local meet by himself but came up short and I think that forced him off the track

Thanks for the info, Tron!

grox wrote:

The 10000m has much more to do with the half than the marathon.

For some runners. Probably not a Mo Farah who was coming off of a season of intense and successful 1500 and 3k training.

I'll bet Bekele is a DNS. He will use some excuse of an injury and needing to recover for London.

I would be insanely surprised if Farah could pull the dub off. Bekele is too fit and has the wheels to pull out a win if it comes down to the last couple miles (just like in 2013). Bekele will win this but I think Kipchoge will take out the London Marathon too fast for anyone to hang, especially since the first 5k is net downhill, Bekele will be dropped by mile 20.

high school xc coach wrote:

the hyena you’ll see wrote:

You mean Mo Farah slithered into the power vacuum that was created by Bekele’s departure from the track due to injury? The 26:46 guy “retired” the 26:17 guy?

Do you remember watching Bekele break Farah in 2013 at GNR? (A year where Farah ran 3:28...) Or when Bekele broke Wilson Kipsang very late in 2016 at Berlin to run 2:03:03?

yes. he retired him in an actual race when he destroyed him in the final lap. He didn't retire a 26:17 guy. he retired a guy who couldn't keep up with a 53 second kick in a 27:30 race. It was off to the roads for bekele after that.

Yeah, sure, injuries suck. We will never know if a healthy Bekele could (have) return(-ed) to the track to run 53-second final quarters off of ~sub-13:00 second half pacing, but to attribute anything to Mo Farah in particular is missing the mark. All that 1500 speed didn’t do him a d@mned bit of good when the cross country GOAT made a hard downhill move a mile+ from the line off of a slow pace. Do you think Mo felt like he relegated the GOAT to anything after that?

The only thing dictating Bekele’s performances are the injury-motivation (read: discipline) cycle.

ballerboiAve wrote:

Bekele will win this but I think Kipchoge will take out the London Marathon too fast for anyone to hang, especially since the first 5k is net downhill, Bekele will be dropped by mile 20.

You think Kipchoge plans to set pace for the only guy in the world who could beat him and take his WR?

Bekele has “fallen off” in marathons before and managed to recover better than anyone I can recall... except when he DNFs. (Not sure Wanjiru’s miracle is the same thing.)

Assuming they both toe the line healthy it’s in Eliud’s best interest to stick to whoever is leading, whether pacesetter or competitor, off of their pace and try to make it hurt after mile 20.

That's sad to see , the end of the race, even if he wond. In a 10 000m, during his prime Bekele obliterated the competition, the last lap was ferocious and nobody was finishing close to him. Farah never destroyed the field like Bekele used to.