*** New East African star emerges: Abreham Feleke, SIXTEEN years old.......runs 8:16 2-mile! *****

Here are my thoughts.

As an Ethiopian I flat out admit that there is a problem verifying peoples ages because some of these guys are born in very rural areas where there may be no birth cirtificates, or they are not issued in the hospital at birth.

I was born in the city and i got my birth certificate when i was 12 years old. I have a huge 'fro on my birth cirtificate.

Personally I think Feleke is very young...less than 20

The federation has no way of verifying his age.. but whether he is running as a junior senior youth.. This guy is a phenomonon. Unblvbl

BOTTOM LINE

Since those of us on the forum cannot determine feleke's age we have to take into account what he has done in one year of international running and grade him on that.

He has run unblvbl times

In 2005 he left ethiopia to compete internationally at the world youth champs..where he threw down a 2:27 last Km in a slow 8 minutes flat time..he had busted a 7:53 in the heat.... He then ran a 1500 in Zurich in 3:42 and 7:43 in Italy (Rieti) meet, Berlin 13:25

This year..he ran 8:16(ore), then 7:41 (doha) 7:32(lusanne)

These on there own maybe simmilar to what Kipchoge and Augustine Choge did... Augistine ran 7:28 as a junior... but!!! the difference is what abreham did today.

12:54 on one year of running experience is phenomenal..

Back to back sub 13 means that this guy has upside to 12:45's in the next couple of years...

In an even paced race feleke can now run 12:49...

Haile, Kenenisa, and others were running 13;10's for 2 3 years.. and this kid is running 12:59 out of the gate...

I think the coaches in Ethiopia have uncovered another barrel chested Jem...Everyone is surprised by this.. even kenenisa ..you can hear him say on the Video "Wond Lij" or ...You are the Man Kid.. He insisted that he take the middle spot on the victory lap...

I think Cherkose is the next Haile/Kenenisa.

One more point..Cherkose got his buttkicked at the Ethiopian Junior Champs.. finishing 8th. So kenenisa is still running free on that level.

Please see attached photo.. this guy is definately less than 20...

I doubt anyone in the last picture is under 20.

8:16 - awesome time

16 years old - a few years ago, yes.

Is it just me, or do the east africans make this the most boring sport on the planet?

Its just you.....

so does this bolding gentleman look his age.

webb looks at least 5 years older than his age...

"Eitho Boy"

I have 3 questions for you...

You said:

"12:54 on one year of running experience is phenomenal.."

Yes it is a phenomenal time, which is why he didnt run it with one year of running experience. Thats not possible.

AND THE BEST PART IS that ontop off all of that, he claims to have done it while only 16!?!?!

its not real.....

You also said:

"Back to back sub 13 means that this guy has upside to 12:45's in the next couple of years..."

yea that may be true. Back to back sub 13 is awsome, but it cant be done by a 16 year old who only has 1 year of experiance. Do you KNOW how long it takes to recover from a sub 13 5k race. Even more so at the age of 16. TWICE?!?!

there is no way he is 16. he is at least 25. Thats not possible.

You also said:

In an even paced race feleke can now run 12:49...

which is why he isnt 16 years old

although everything you stated about his running ability is true, (I am not doubting his ability in any way) but his age. YES. I dont care if Alan Webb looks older then he really is. That can be debated about. Its been said earlyier before. You cant tell how old someone is just by looking at there picture. I am basing my arguement on his performances not some stupid picture like many of the others have been doing.

Lastly, you even prove my point even more when you stated that in Eitheopia there are no registerd births. IN AMERICA THERE ARE REGISTERED BIRTHS, which is why your reference to Alan Webb holds no weight.

he around 25-27

you can't just throw arbitrary numbers out there, he may be older but "atleast 25"? That is def. too concrete of a statement

Have you guys ever seen any high school national races? The kids that usually excell in HS look much older than their schoolmates. That is a key to performing well as a youth, physical maturity. It is only natural that a world champ youth looks older than he may be.

dude, I think ethioboys post was spot on, he conceeded we'll never know for sure some ethiopians ages, it's the same with the Kenyans. Bottom line who cares, it matters only for records, and age champs, if in 4-5 years this guy hasn't improved at all then he's just another mid 12.50's African, if he does improve much at all, then he'll be one of the best. Outright- no age modifiers.

If the country cannot prove the ages legitimately their athletes should not be allowed to run in age group competition. They'll soon sort their systems out.

Monday is however using totally flawed logic - he sets in his mind what he believes is possible and then, using that as established fact, concludes that everything outside the limits he has set in his mind is impossible. Circular reasoning AND arrogant.

I'm not saying Feleke is 16, and I'm not saying he isn't. But Monday's argument sucks. Big time.

At 16 it is more than possible to have 10yrs+ of aerobic conditioning. I don't see why a faster maturing 16yr old who has run lots of miles from the age of 5 can't do what a 19yr old can do. But this is, of course, just conjecture - two sides to the argument, though.

We just have to accept that with Feleke, we just don't know.

You guys crack me up. I wonder if across in Europe they look at guys like Greg Oden, Lebron, Kobe, Shaq, KG coming out of high school and question how old they are. I mean Lebron looked like and played basketball like your average 18 year old at 18, right? Staying in track...X-Man, J-Mee Samuels, Roy Martin Jr., Dwayne Evans..how'd thse guys excel like that at such a young age? Somethings gotta be wrong there, right?

"Oh that's different, they're sprinters/jumpers...it doesn't take them years and years to develop an aerobic base!" squawk the doubters. Well guess what?, for guys who have been walking/running to school their whole lives at altitude over hilly terrain, herding animals after school, playing soccer for hour upon hour for fun, carrying buckets of water from the river, bringing the food home from the market on their back, not pumping their bodies full of refined crap, their whole lives have been spent training for endurance events without them even thinking about it...long before they ever knew that one day some European agent would wisk them away to far away lands. I know that it takes some kid who spent most of his childhood being bused to school and with an xbox as a best friend a hell of a long time to recover from a fast 5K, but don't try and compare that kid to someone who's had a completely different upbringing.

Why is it possible for 13/14/15 year old Romanian gymnasts to hit perfect 10s year in and year out and take home gold medals without anyone getting their panties in a knot? How about the 16/17/18 year old Americans, Australians and Europeans who routinely turn in world-class performances in swimming at the Olympics? Oh...sorry...they're white....they get a free pass. Actually, the logical explanation is that from the age of 12 (or earlier) their asses are up at 5 o'clock for the first swim of the day, and later on they're doing dry land training on top of the swim miles. Bollitieri's and bunch of other academies are full of pubescent kids hitting tenning balls and golf balls for hours and hours, and the pro ranks in those sports feature McEnroe, Agassi, Evert, Sampras types who make their marks at 17,18, etc. World Cup soccer...the tournament was full of 18/19 year old types (Fabregas, Ronaldo of Portugal) who had a big impact and the best leagues in the world routinely feature kids younger than that...so why the disbelief that a 17 year old who has been training for runing his whole life, albeit unbeknowst to him/her, can do things Westerners find hard to swallow. Because mom and dad didn't sell the house and move half way around the world to enroll him in the KippieKeino Running Academy?

Hey...are some of these guys older than they say? Sure. Are some of them on drugs? Sure. But for you to look at the results of all of the races of the world cross country championships and then tell me with a straight face that the reason why 20 and 30 deep the results feature only a handful of white faces is because there is a vast conspiracy involving Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Burundi, South Africa, Morrocco, Algeria, Qatar, and that all of these people are drug cheats/age fakers is absurd. Face it, the genes/lifestyles/training of these folks are conducive to their performing at a high level as runners. So don't go trying to impose your Western lifestyle-based ideas of their physical limitations on others. Wasn't it not too long ago some yahoos were saying man would implode if he ran a sub-4 mile?

What ever you said, white people should wait another 50 year to win the 5000mr or 10000mr period!!!!!!!

I didn't say he was 16. Where in my post did i say that.Show me a 25 year old that has the following progression13:25 First Year in Europe12:59 Second Year Race 112:54 Second Year Race 2That is what i wanted to comment on. His age is unknown and maybe anywhere from 18-25... but when i compare him to haile, kenenisa and Tariku or choge.. he seems to be rising faster...I am not sure if this means that he will plateau sooner... we are just talking about potential here... Anyway, i also looked back at last year and saw that he had a 3:42 1500 meters and a 7:43 3000. So he has come along way.He seems a little inexperienced when you look at the way he hits the front with 400, 500 to go... If he timed his kick right, he could finish 3rd 4th in some of these races.

he is not 16. End of arguement. Like stated on page 3, he is most likely between the ages of 24-27

everyone just stop. This is stupid. Forget his picture and forget his times. Just look at the facts, and there undeniably wrong. You cant run with Kenny B after 1 year of racing.

It may have been mentioned already, but age is f***ing irrelevant, it doesnt matter how old the kid is on paper but in a physical sense, for you slow people think of it like this:

the advantage of being 16: still lots of growing to go so naturally will progress, BUT if the kid is 16, and physically 20-25 he has lost the most "advantage" of being 16, apart from the number years of running that he has done, and lets face it, some of those kids are running 60miles at age 11 so the ceiling effect takes care of that.

no actually there not running 60 miles a week at age 11, no they dont "run" to school at age 6, and for the most part, NO they dont tell the truth about there ages.

Anyone who believes otherwise there is no problem. Your just simply wrong. All of the myths about them running all that high mileage as kids isnt true. They dont start trainning till 15-19 years old.

How else do they get to school... ride the bus

In some countries like ethiopia they base a year on a 13 month calendar which could make an age discrepency